Eight Days of Christmas
by o Mischief Managed
Summary: Liz has always hated Christmas. But this year, her worst nightmare comes true when she's forced to live the same Christmas Day over and over again. Will she learn the lesson behind the magic, or is she doomed to be stuck on Christmas forever? KxL :D
1. Day 1: Irritation

IT'S CHRISTMAS TIME, KIDDIES! And that means I get to do what I do best - write Christmas fanfics! Hooray!

So this takes place umm... I think about a year-ish in the future. Funny story, I actually wrote this story last January, but I didn't wanna post it since it was already after Christmas, heh heh. SO I waited till this December and now the time has come at last! ...Though I haven't re-read or edited this since then, so I probably forget what happens at all... hahaha. Oh well, I remember loving it, so we'll just go with it for now!

Also as a side note, this is the longest chapter by far, so don't worry about the others being this terrifying length. There's 6 chapters total, and the next-longest one was only 11 pages in Word (whereas this one was 20... haha). I'll probably post them ever three or four days, so I end up posting the last one right before Christmas.

(Oh, and don't think this means I'm quitting on House of Cards. The next chapter of it is about half-written, and since this is already done it won't take my time away!)

Happy Christmastime, everybody!

* * *

><p>"It's Christmas! It's Christmas!"<p>

Liz groggily opened one eye as the sound of her sister's excited shouts penetrated the otherwise complete early morning silence inside her bedroom walls.

_Christmas…?_ she thought as she sat up, rubbing the last remnants of sleep from her tired eyes. She glanced at the clock beside her bed, on which the shorter hand was stopped somewhere near the eight and the longer hand near the two. _Wow… She let me sleep in this year._

With a long, disgruntled sigh, Liz got out of bed and threw on some clothes, the sounds of her sister thumping happily down the stairs ringing in her ears. As she made her bed and left the room, she couldn't help but feel her spirits dropping with each passing second. Christmas had always been Liz's least favorite holiday, maybe even her least favorite day of the year altogether, for a number of reasons she tried not to remind herself of. But no matter how much she always wished she could simply sleep through the day, each year she would be forced awake, usually at the crack of dawn, by her sister Patty, who loved Christmas just as much as the next kid and would be damned if she'd let her only older sister miss such a grand event, much to said sister's dismay. So of course, today was no different.

"Merry Christmas, sis!" Patty exclaimed happily as Liz entered the living room where she was sitting, sorting through the myriad of brightly-colored, perfectly wrapped gifts huddled under the enormous Christmas tree. "Look at all the presents! Guess ya can't beat Christmas in a fancy mansion, huh?" She laughed her overly-loud laugh through a grin of utter excitement, to which Liz forced a smile and a half-hearted reply.

"Where's Kid?" Liz asked her sister, trying to at least momentarily change the subject. Their meister always got up at exactly eight o'clock every morning, so she knew he had to be around somewhere. She also knew that while far from disliking Christmas, he at least was nowhere near as enthusiastic about it as Patty, and would therefore prove less depressing company for the cynical older sister.

Patty threw an arm out behind her, pointing to the kitchen door, as she continued to examine her gifts. "He's in there, makin' breakfast." Without another word, Liz headed for the kitchen door and pushed it open to find Kid inside, just as Patty had said. He was standing at the counter, his back to her, stirring sugar into a steaming cup of coffee. Hearing the sudden entrance, he turned around to greet her.

"Morning, Liz," he offered simply. After a very brief pause, he added a careful "Merry Christmas."

"Yeah," Liz replied shortly, plopping into a seat at the square table in the center of the room. Kid and Patty both knew how she disliked the holidays, but while Patty spent her time trying to make her sister see the joy of Christmas, Kid always seemed to accept her feelings and try only not to make her more angry and uncomfortable. For this, Liz felt she should be grateful, and maybe after the day was over she would be.

Just then a clicking noise sounded as four pieces of freshly-cooked toast popped out of the silver toaster behind Kid. "Want some toast?" he asked as he turned around and lifted the bread from the toaster.

"Sure," Liz answered, stifling a yawn. "Strawberry jam, please," she continued, answering his next question before he asked it.

Roughly thirty-five minutes later, as Kid finally handed Liz her now-cold slice of toast (after he insisted on making sure the jam was evenly spread across every inch of the surface), Patty suddenly burst through the kitchen door, wearing an expression that was clearly supposed to be a pout but that came off somewhat comical because of the stifled enthusiasm on her face.

"Come on, guys, present time!" she whined, grabbing each of their hands and dragging them both back into the living room, where she promptly forced them onto the couch and plopped herself back down amid the assortment of gifts. "So… Who should go first?" she asked rhetorically, a thoughtful expression on her face. "Well, it's Kid's house, so…" She turned her eyes to him, as if offering to let him start, though the gleam in them clearly displayed that that wasn't her true intention.

After a short pause, Kid leaned back on the couch, closing his eyes. "No, you go ahead, Patty," he said with a sigh.

"Wheeee! Thanks, Kid!" Patty exclaimed happily, before grabbing the first box addressed to her and tearing it open.

Just under an hour later, they had just about finished unwrapping, and as a result the living room was littered with colored wrapping paper, shiny ribbons, and expertly-tied bows, not to mention the contents of the previously-wrapped boxes now strewn about. As Liz opened her final gift, a movie soundtrack that she'd had her eye on from Patty, Kid stood up and addressed the two of them.

"Now that we're done with that, I've got one more gift for each of you." With that, he turned and left the room, headed for the foyer. The sisters exchanged a glance, wondering what it could be, but before either could say a word he was back, carrying two boxes with identical paper and bows, though one was considerably larger than the other. It looked like it was paining him to carry a different-sized box in each hand, and Patty giggled at the sight as he handed her the larger of the two, which was about three square feet in size. Liz's was smaller, about a foot tall and two-thirds as wide. "My father suggested I get you each something… different," he continued as they tore into the packages. Liz knew he was referring to the way that lately, both the sisters and Lord Death had been trying their hardest to cure Kid of his 'problem.' Most of the other gifts he'd gotten them had been the same for each sister, which was nice but at the same time may not have been best for them. "So I had these made with each of you in mind. My father thinks it's progress, but I still feel that—"

A squeal from Patty drowned out whatever it was Kid had been about to say, as she finally finished freeing her new gift. Inside the box was a dollhouse version of the Academy, a perfect replica including doors that really opened and lights that flickered on and off. Inside were figures of them and most of their friends, including some of the teachers. Patty beamed at Kid and squealed again, before setting to explore it more closely.

Turning her eyes to her own gift, Liz opened the box and lifted out of it a snow globe about the size of her head, inside of which was a tiny model of all of Death City. She shook it absently, making snow swirl up around the buildings she was now so used to. When it caught the light, however, she noticed that each of those buildings was decorated with Christmas lights and bows, a testament to the holiday she so hated to be reminded of. She looked away with a huff and a depressed glance that didn't go unnoticed by her meister.

"What's wrong," he asked, an almost unnoticeable twinge of sadness in his voice, "you don't like it?"

Liz looked up at him. "It's not that…" she offered lamely, though she couldn't think of anything else to say. In truth, it was a very beautiful gift, something just about any other girl would fall completely in love with. But then again, 'any other girl' probably didn't feel like crawling back into bed at the mention of the holidays.

Much to Patty's disappointment, Kid quickly shooed them upstairs with all their gifts after that, saying he needed to clean up the mess before calling his father. Back in the safety of her bedroom, Liz tossed all her new possessions into a corner and dropped down onto her bed, staring at the ceiling. She hated to make Kid think she didn't appreciate such a great gift, especially when Patty's blatant love for her gift made any reaction Liz could possibly give pale in comparison already. He was always so good to both of them. It was because of him, after all, that Patty could spend Christmas in such a beautiful house, rather than on the icy streets of Brooklyn like they had for so many years. And Liz knew she should at least be thankful for that, if nothing else. After all, she loved her sister dearly, and would give anything for her happiness. But around this season, she found it increasingly difficult to think of anyone's happiness, let alone her own. She knew it was selfish, but she couldn't help it. Patty didn't remember, after all… And it wasn't something Liz wanted to tell her sister about, or anyone for that matter.

A knock on her door soon woke Liz out of her self-pitying reverie. "Sis?" Patty called, opening the door as Liz sat up on her bed. "We're goin' to visit Maka and Soul. Wanna come?"

After a moment's thought, Liz shrugged, standing up. "Sure," she answered shortly, grabbing a jacket and pair of boots and following Patty downstairs. It might be good to get outside, be distracted by the cold and snow. Plus, Soul wasn't too big on the whole Christmas thing either (if for different reasons than her), so there was a good chance their place wouldn't be as lavishly decorated as Kid's mansion, which would be a welcome change.

Less than ten minutes later, all three of the house's occupants were dressed in their winter wear and ready to head out into the snow. Not three seconds after opening the doors, however, the sisters found their paths obstructed by each of Kid's arms, which he'd flung out to stop them as he first turned his eyes outside. Stepping sideways to see around her meister (whose height had grown a few inches over the past year so that he was now barely an inch shorter than her), Liz noticed immediately exactly what it was that had caught his attention.

The vast front lawn of their home had overnight been covered in a light sheet of perfectly white snow, which now sat completely smooth and untouched over the frozen grass beneath it. Patty breathed a slow "Woooooow" as they looked out over the pearly snow glittering in the late morning sun.

"Look at that snow!" Kid began, stars in his eyes as he stood stock-still, blocking their path. "I've never seen something so beautiful in my life! The way it lies so closely with the gentle slope of the hill, the perfection with which it's brushed so evenly across the ground, hiding any impurities in the grass. There's no way we're going to walk on it and create a mess of uneven footprints."

Liz huffed, hands on her hips. "Well, what do you expect us to do, jump over the entire lawn to the street?" she said sarcastically. "Let me just get a running start."

"Of course not, Liz, don't be silly," he replied.

_Right,_ she couldn't help but think. _Like I'm the one being silly._

No sooner had she finished this thought than Kid's magical skateboard, Beelzebub, appeared at his side. He lowered his arms just a little, holding a hand out to each of the sisters.

"Yay!" Patty squealed as she took one of her meister's hands and transformed into her weapon form. The younger Thompson sister loved flying, and didn't seem to mind that the cold in the air would surely be amplified at the speeds at which they usually travelled.

Kid turned his head to look at the remaining sister. "Liz?"

Liz sighed, shaking her head. "Yeah, yeah," she replied dully as she too took his outstretched hand and changed to her weapon form.

Both weapons safely in his grip, Kid jumped onto the skateboard and took off over the snowy lawn, still marveling at its apparent magnificence. Liz had been right in thinking that it would no doubt be much colder flying through the winter air than walking. The cold metal of her pistol form only made things worse, and she was instantly missing the furry coat and boots she'd been wearing back on the doorstep. She could feel Patty's excitement and Kid's contentment as the icy wind whipped by them, chilling Liz to the bone.

A short moment later, and to Liz's great relief, they touched ground again, the sisters reverting back to human form. They were now standing on the city sidewalk, which had been shoveled and was now snow-free.

"Awww, no more flying?" Patty confirmed in a disappointed voice.

Kid shot a short, discreet glance in Liz's direction, before turning and starting forward on foot. "We walk from here," he answered shortly. Liz wondered briefly whether or not he had sensed her discomfort in the air and that was why they'd landed. Ordinarily she would've thanked him, but her mood was already so sour she didn't want to open her mouth and risk snapping at anyone before warming up a little.

As they walked past all the dark, closed shops and warm, brightly-lit homes, Patty wishing a Merry Christmas to anyone who passed by them, Liz kept her hands shoved in her pockets and followed along sullenly, not speaking much. Trudging along behind the others, she noticed that Kid seemed a bit distracted. He kept looking sideways down alleyways and into dark windows, as if searching for something. But it seemed he didn't care to tell them what it was, so she didn't ask. She just walked begrudgingly along, glaring at her feet as they kicked up slush on the damp sidewalk.

"You know, it's really not _that_ cold out," Kid offered finally in a slightly reprimanding tone, when he had fallen into step next to Liz and a little behind Patty. "It also helps not to think about it."

"Yeah, well, you're a grim reaper," Liz replied almost monotonously. "You're body's different than mine."

"True," he admitted, "but look at Patty. She's managing just fine." Indeed, Patty seemed to notice the cold the least out of the three of them, as she skipped on ahead, a permanent grin plastered on her flushed face.

Liz looked down toward the ground. "She's got that unnatural 'holiday cheer' of hers to keep her warm."

Kid fixed her with a pointed look, raising his eyebrows as if to say that was exactly his point. Liz glared back at him.

"What?" she snapped. "Like I should try getting into the season and suddenly all my problems will go away? Right. Great advice, Kid."

Kid shrugged and held up his hands defensively. "I'm just suggesting—"

"Well, don't," she cut him off bitterly, and he fell silent. "I just wanna get through this day as quickly and painlessly as possible."

Now, of course, because everything in the world was constantly out to make her life a living hell, it was at that exact moment that Patty stopped in her tracks, her eyes going wide.

"Oooooh," she crooned, pointing to something across the street. "Look!"

Following Patty's gaze, Liz saw what looked like the only open shop for miles, its lights on and a sign on the door reading 'Come in'. It was a small building, looking somewhat squashed between the two apartment buildings on either side of it. It had a low roof and a small red awning over a single door, the only window covered with a burgundy shawl from the inside. A dusty sign above the awning read _Madam Avea, Mystic Seer_ in curly faded-gold lettering. The shop looked old, but had a sort of strange allure to it all the same, like a box you're told not to look inside because it holds a great secret.

"A fortune teller!" Patty marveled, her grin widening. She turned to Kid with pleading eyes. "Can we go?"

"I don't know, Patty," he replied slowly, squinting his eyes at the little shop, an apprehensive look on his face. "People like that are usually just frauds trying to cheat innocent people out of their money. It's probably ridiculously over-priced."

"Yeah, let's just get going," Liz chimed in. Though some part of her was inexplicably drawn to the place, it wasn't a big enough desire to overturn her foul mood.

"Aww, come on," the younger sister continued, jumping up and down. She grabbed Kid's arm and yanked on it, nearly knocking him over. "Pleeeeease?"

"Okay, okay," he gave in after she continued to pull on his sleeve. He shook her off and straightened his jacket. "Just for a little." Patty cheered and led the way across the street as Liz groaned and trudged along behind, realizing neither she nor Kid really had much final say in the matter at all.

For how ordinary the outside of the fortune teller's shop had looked, the inside was far from it. The front room they walked into was very dimly-lit, so much so that Liz had to wait for her eyes to adjust properly before she could take a good look around. There were a few tea lamps scattered about, but each had thin, burgundy shawls draped over them, casting the room in a deep reddish glow. Larger shawls of similar reds and browns were hanging askew in odd places on the walls as well, almost giving the impression that a child had stuck them up carelessly and they had stayed there since (Liz saw Kid cringe at the sight, but he bit his bottom lip to keep from saying anything and stayed where he stood). A particularly ugly curtain decorated with a pattern that looked something like tree bark hung loosely over a doorway in the back left of the room, leading to who-knows-where. There were musty old armchairs in the corners of the room, and a single round table in the center, around which were set the two largest seats. There must have been incense burning somewhere, given the pungent smell of smoky perfume drifting in the air. Immediately upon entering, Liz could feel her mind become somewhat clouded, as if she'd just been thinking of something important but could no longer remember what it was (though admittedly, it didn't matter much, as she was too busy being pleased to notice that the room was decidedly void of Christmas decorations).

As the door closed behind them, blocking out the cold, the tree-bark curtain was pushed aside to reveal an old woman with long, auburn hair and a wrinkled face. She was a few inches shorter than Patty, as she walked slightly hunched over. She had numerous shawls draped over her small frame, their colors matching those of the ones on the walls and the layering giving her a feathered appearance, and a multitude of gold bangles shook around her wrists. A chain hung from her neck, on which was attached a gold watch the size of a fist. Her chestnut eyes were large and wide, and they gave Liz the haunting feeling that they could see into her thoughts. Altogether she resembled an old owl, wise and all-seeing.

"Uh… Hi," Kid said awkwardly, taking an uncertain step forward. The woman—Liz assumed she was Avea—didn't reply. She only smiled at them all as she seated herself in one of the high-backed chairs around the small table. After a moment's beat, she held out a hand, indicating the other chair.

"I'll go first!" Patty said happily, seating herself down (though it wasn't as though either of the other two were quite as eager as she was in the first place). She took hold of Avea's outstretched hand and both closed their eyes. Liz watched in silence, waiting for Avea to say something or begin whatever it was she was going to do, but as the seconds turned to minutes, still nothing happened, as both her sister and the fortune teller remained seated perfectly still and perfectly quiet.

After a moment, it was as though someone had pressed play again. Patty opened her eyes, grinned, and stood, giving Avea a slight bow. She looked like she was fighting hard to keep quiet, as she grabbed Kid by the shoulders and shoved him into the chair she had just vacated, Liz watching in complete confusion. It hadn't looked as though Avea had done anything, and yet Patty seemed perfectly happy with the silent exchange they'd just witnessed. As Kid slowly took the fortune teller's hand, that same look of apprehension never leaving his face, Liz felt her curiosity rising, almost causing her to forget whatever had had her so depressed before entering the small shop. And before she knew it, Kid was rising from the chair, looking thoroughly confused (which wasn't a look she often saw on his face). He looked at Avea almost suspiciously for a brief second, before seeming to decide against whatever he'd thought of saying and instead turning and stepping away from the table. Patty looked over at Liz, and she took it to mean it was finally her turn.

Liz could feel the old woman's round, piercing eyes on her as she sat down in the cushy, high-backed chair. In closer proximity, she was able to get a good look at Avea's hands, which were wrinkled with age. On almost every finger was a small golden ring, and her fingernails were over an inch long and pointed, giving the impression of talons. Quite reluctantly, Liz took the fortune teller's outstretched hand, waiting for something to happen. When Avea closed her eyes, Liz followed suit and slowly did the same.

_It's rare to meet such an unpleasant aura on Christmas Day, you know._

Liz must have jumped a mile high at the sound of the old woman's voice speaking in her mind. She cracked an eye open to see if she had been tricked in some way.

_You haven't misheard, _the voice said again, though Liz noticed Avea's lips didn't move, but stayed closed and stationary forming the smallest of smiles. _This is how I do my Seeing._

_You can… _Liz felt silly having a conversation with someone by thought alone, but what else was she to do? _You can read minds?_

The woman chuckled, and Liz felt slightly embarrassed. _In a manner of speaking, yes, _came the reply. _And not often have I met a mind as closed off as yours, especially on Christmas._

_Why is Christmas all everyone ever talks about? _Liz complained, all discomfort of her current situation having gone. _Why is it so great anyway? Nothing good's ever happened to me on Christmas. What reason do I have to be all cheery?_

_It seems you haven't quite realized the meaning behind the Christmas season. _Liz could almost hear the frown in the old woman's voice. _It's truly a special time, and it only comes once a year, you know—_

_Good thing, _Liz couldn't help but interject. _Or I'd have all the more reason to be miserable._

There was a short pause, during which Liz began to feel extremely self-conscious. _I see,_ Avea's voice said finally. _So you really have closed your eyes to what truly matters. Well, let me give you some advice, rather than a fortune reading, alright? _Liz didn't answer. Frankly, she didn't care what this woman said anymore, and really she just wanted to leave this place. _As I've said, Christmas is a wonderful day that only comes once a year, once every three hundred and sixty-five days. You say you would be more miserable if it occurred more frequently, but really that is only because you fail to see what's so great about it. So this year, maybe all you need to do is open your eyes a little. You may be surprised at what you See._

Liz felt the old woman's hand slip away from hers, and looked up to see her wide, chestnut eyes watching her, a gentle smile on her wrinkled face.

As Liz stood, Kid made to pay Avea for her services, but she shook her head silently, pulling a small, wooden sign out from under the table and holding it up to them with a friendly smile. It read 'Merry Christmas' in dusty, gold lettering.

Patty beamed at the woman and Kid cracked a small smile. "Thanks," he offered as Liz pulled open the door. "Merry Christmas."

The rest of the walk to Maka and Soul's apartment was relatively uneventful. Patty couldn't resist discussing what she and Avea had talked about in her mind (evidently the woman had told Patty that she had an extremely pleasant aura, and would no doubt bring happiness to many other people that day), and tried hard to get the other two to spill the beans as well. After much prodding, Kid would only give up that they had talked a bit about his father, and a task he'd been set to do. But other than that, he was adamantly silent. Liz, of course, would say absolutely nothing on the subject.

When they reached their destination and knocked on the door, they were answered with a muffled 'Come in' from beyond it, at which Patty twisted the doorknob and led the way inside, Liz bringing up the rear. Upon entering the main room of the small apartment, Liz's earlier hopes of a relatively Christmas-free visit were instantly dashed.

If she'd thought their house was over-decorated, then Soul and Maka's place could very well have been Santa's workshop at the North Pole on Christmas Eve. 'Over-decorated' wasn't even an adequate term to describe the state the apartment was in. Sparkling garland wrapped in twinkling lights hung from every window, table, and bookcase, as well as the mantle and the corners where the walls met the ceiling. The walls were all but covered in intricate paper snowflakes, no two the same (in true snowflake fashion). Nutcrackers of every shape and size were placed strategically around the room: three on the mantle, two on the coffee table, one on each of the shelves in the bookcase, and two on the TV stand. Small figurines of Santas, snowmen, figure skaters, and tiny boxes wrapped with bows decorated the bookshelves and TV stand, and three candles—two red and one white—sat burning atop the mantle, their wax dripping into golden bowls lined with holly and berries. The couch had been packed with what looked like over thirty stuffed toys, which featured bears, snowmen, penguins, puppies, Santa Claus himself, and a whole mess of similar animals wearing red scarves or green vests to show their festive side. The fattest Christmas tree Liz had ever seen was stuffed into the corner opposite the bookcase, and its branches were weighed down heavily with tinsel, pinecones, garlands, gingerbread, strung popcorn, and blinking lights of at least six different colors. All in all, it looked as though a megastore selling Christmas decorations had simply dumped all of its wares in through the roof.

"Woooooow," Patty breathed, taking a few steps into the room to get a good look at everything. Liz huffed and shook her head, wishing she'd decided to stay home after all.

"Yeah, I know," came a bodiless voice, which made them all jump and look around. It took Liz a moment to realize it had come from Soul, who was in fact sitting half-hidden among the multitude of stuffed toys on the sofa. Now that she'd seen him, she couldn't help but think it was actually a rather funny sight. "Maka and Blair went a little crazy with the decorations this year…"

"I can see that," Kid stated simply, and Liz could tell he and Patty were trying not to laugh (Kid managing it better than Patty, who had her hand over her mouth to suppress her giggles) as Soul fought himself away from the stuffed toys—some of which fell onto the floor at the disturbance—and came over to greet them.

"Where's Maka?" Liz asked half-heartedly, not seeing the scythe meister in the room, buried under stuffed toys or otherwise.

Soul looked at her, seeming slightly taken aback by her very obvious melancholy, before answering, "She's changing clothes. Said she wanted to be ready early, but I think she just wants to show off her new dress." He rolled his eyes as if to say 'Must be a girl thing.'

Just then Blair came bouncing into the room, dressed in a very short and revealing Santa costume, complete with a red hat, which had holes cut for her furry cat ears. She was carrying a tray full to bursting with all kinds of Christmas sweets, a wide grin plastered on her face.

"Who wants cookiiiiieeees?" she crooned with a wink, holding up the tray. Patty squealed and rushed to meet her, stuffing a handful of sugar cookies into her mouth. The next twenty minutes or so were spent in pleasant conversation (for most of the participating party anyway). Blair kept trying to stuff sweets into the mouths of Kid and Soul, both of whom tried their hardest to shove her off, while Patty happily indulged herself in the remainder of the tray. Liz sat mostly in silence, refusing to look around for fear of catching glimpses of the numerous decorations (though admittedly that left her little to look at), only speaking when someone addressed her directly—and even then her answers were typically quite short and snappish.

"Ta-da!" came a sudden voice from across the room, making them all look up. Maka had just entered from the hallway leading to the kitchen and bedrooms, and she was wearing what Liz presumed to be the 'new dress' Soul had mentioned earlier. It was almost knee length, made of a soft, forest green cotton. The sleeves reached halfway down her upper arms, and the bust of the dress was gathered into a shiny black belt that sat just below her chest, the skirt hanging loosely below it. It was the perfect dress for Maka, modest but cute at the same time. "My dad got something right for once," she said happily, turning around so they could see it from every angle. It was then she noticed Kid, Liz, and Patty, and she beamed at them. "Hey, guys! Merry Christmas!"

"You look so pretty!" Patty told Maka, who grinned at the compliment.

"Yeah," Soul agreed, an impressed smile on his face. "It looks great on you."

Maka blushed slightly, before frowning at him. "You're not wearing that to Christmas dinner, are you?" she challenged him in a warning tone.

He looked down at the white shirt and black jeans he was wearing. "I was planning to, yes," he answered shortly.

"I think he looks fine!" Blair piped up, pressing against Soul from behind and hanging her arms around his neck. He shook her off awkwardly and Maka ignored her completely.

"I don't think so, mister," she said, striding forward and grabbing his arm, before proceeding to drag him back toward the hallway. "We'll call Black Star and be at your place around seven," she called to Kid, Liz, and Patty as they disappeared around the corner. "See you guys later!"

"Uh-oh," Liz said aloud, a thought hitting her at Maka's last statement. "That only leaves us six hours to get ready."

"What's wrong?" Blair asked as she picked up the now empty cookie tray. "That's plenty of time to cook dinner."

Liz fixed the cat with a wry smile. "Maybe for someone who doesn't live with this idiot." She jabbed a finger over her shoulder toward Kid, who looked up, seeming to take minor offense at this statement.

"Last year we started around 2:30," Patty chimed in. "And by eight o'clock all we had cooked were mashed potatoes and cranberries."

"Kid was never satisfied with the way the turkey was cooked, and had to keep putting it in the oven for longer, insisting that one side was slightly less done than the other. By the time it was equally cooked, the whole thing was burnt the same shade of black." Liz shook her head at the memory. "We ended up eating the potatoes, cranberries, and cold cereal."

"Plus, this time, we're cooking for seven." Patty held up seven fingers as if to emphasize this fact. "So we'll have to be extra careful."

Blair gave them both confused looks as they hurriedly said goodbye and each grabbed one of Kid's arms and rushed him out the door, as he attempted to justify that he would never want to serve anything less than completely perfect for such an important meal, else it be a complete disgrace to his name.

They flew back to the mansion in order to save time (much to Liz's displeasure). On the way, the sisters could sense that same distracted feeling in their meister, who kept glancing this way and that, as if watching out for something. He was definitely on edge about something, though when Patty asked him about it he brushed it off as nothing, so they didn't bring it up again.

Not long after reaching the house, they were all in the kitchen, making different preparations. Patty was peeling potatoes, Liz was cutting up celery, and Kid was examining the turkey with a curved ruler.

"Kid, what are you doing?" Liz finally asked in an exasperated voice.

"Well," he began without looking up from his work, "you, Maka, Soul, and Black Star prefer white meat while Patty, Tsubaki, and I prefer dark, which means that the ratio of white to dark meat should be exactly four to three in order to make sure that everyone present gets precisely equal portions."

Liz sighed. "Long as this doesn't turn into another fiasco like last year…"

"Liz, you know how I feel about—" He stopped short as he turned to face her. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" he yelled so suddenly it made both sisters jump in surprise.

Liz looked down at her work. "What does it look like?" she answered irritably. "I'm chopping celery."

"This is all wrong!" Kid began, rushing over and pushing her out of the way, picking up the knife. "Look at this! Every single one of these pieces is cut a different size! How can we possibly eat this?" He then proceeded to measure and re-cut all the celery slices Liz had already done. As she watched him, Patty giggling silently behind her, Liz couldn't help but think that this very well might be the second meal of cold toast she'd have that day, and silently hoped that the others wouldn't hold it against them.

A few hours later, a knock on the door sounded just as the trio finished setting the table, announcing the arrival of Black Star and Tsubaki. Black Star had clearly attempted to dress up somewhat for the occasion (likely not without some prodding from his weapon partner); he was wearing a pair of white pants and a slightly wrinkled black dress shirt, which he had neglected to tuck in. His white tie was tied loosely around his neck. He wore his usual starred boots under the pant legs, and his usual cocky grin on his face. Tsubaki, in contrast, looked very nice in a simple black, ankle-length dress, a shining gold ribbon in her hair. She was smiling almost apologetically as Kid opened the door to let them in.

"…Wait," Kid said suddenly, staring at Black Star's shoes. "You didn't walk through the snow, did you?" he asked in an accusatory tone—there was snow covering his shoes and pant legs.

"Well, duh," Black Star replied, as if Kid had asked him if the sky was blue. "How'd you expect us to get here, fly?" He laughed loudly, hands on his hips. Liz put a hand over her face. _Here we go…_

Tsubaki offered a smile and shrugged, her hands together. "Sorry, Kid," she said, speaking over Black Star.

To Liz's surprise, Kid let the subject drop and stepped aside, allowing the two on the doorstep entrance to the house (Tsubaki made sure Black Star stomped the snow off his feet before stepping inside). "That's okay," he said, though it sounded more like he was trying to convince himself of this fact rather than reassure Tsubaki. "It's Christmas. Let's just… forget about it." Liz noticed that he closed the door without looking outside.

"So what's for dinner?" Black Star asked, rubbing his hands together and shaking off the cold. "I'm starving!"

"Black Star, you ate two hours ago," Tsubaki said carefully, handing their coats to Patty, who rushed to hang them in the closet.

"Ha!" Black Star laughed, as if Tsubaki had said something extremely stupid. "Come on, Tsubaki. You know a man needs six meals a day to survive, especially a man as big as me." He jabbed his chest with his thumb as Tsubaki shook her head, a sympathetic smile in place.

"Well, I hope you're not _too_ hungry…" Liz interjected sardonically, leading the way to the dining room and opening the door to reveal the fully-set table, which had a very eclectic assortment of foods arranged on it.

There were two bowls of mashed potatoes, one bowl of corn, a plate of whole apples and carrot sticks, very thinly sliced bread with sides of jam, butter, and marmalade, a tray of honey-roasted peanuts, individual-sized iced carrot cakes, and string cheese. All in all, it looked like a table of entirely appetizers, or a giant, separated trail mix.

"What the hell is all this?" Black Star asked incredulously after a moment of silence.

Liz flinched a bit, the memories of the last few hours of cooking all flooding back to her, before answering, "Dinner."

Before Black Star could reply, Kid shook his head, saying, "I know it's terrible, it's a disgrace. The turkey was so improperly portioned, and I just couldn't get the vegetables sliced evenly. We tried cooking beans, but they filled out to different consistencies every time. The casserole was too crispy on one end and too soft on the other, it took me over an hour just to get that bread sliced to a satisfactory level, the crust on the apple pie just wouldn't even out, the cookies looked more like ellipses than circles—"

Liz turned to Tsubaki for help, sliding her hand over her throat and glancing meaningfully at Kid, who continued to point out every imperfection he'd come across in the last few hours ("—there were thirty-seven sesame seeds on one of the dinner rolls. Thirty-seven!"). As Black Star opened his mouth to complain, Tsubaki instantly covered it with her hand and jabbed him in the back.

"It looks perfect, Kid!" she insisted through a forced smile. "We can't wait to eat it! Right, Black Star?" She jabbed him in the back again and he nodded, glaring at the 'feast' before him.

Maka and Soul (whom his meister had apparently forced into a pair of black pants and a deep red dress shirt) arrived shortly afterward, and they all set down to eat. Dinner was a quiet affair for a while, Tsubaki ensuring that Black Star kept quiet and everyone else either too wary or disappointed to say anything to their hosts. Patty was eating just as enthusiastically as ever, determined to try and keep the mood light, but Liz felt it really didn't help much. Occasionally Maka or Tsubaki would attempt to start a conversation, but it never quite got anywhere. The only moderately successful attempt happened after about half an hour, though the resulting events were likely not what anyone had had in mind.

"This is nice, isn't it?" the scythe meister began, glancing around the table. "All of us here together on Christmas; lately we haven't gotten to hang out much… Even though this isn't really—"

Everyone jumped when Kid suddenly slammed down his silverware and hung his head. "This is all my fault! If it wasn't for my inability to make anything perfect, we'd have a real dinner right now! Maybe we should've just ordered out for pizza or something…"

"Don't say that, Kid," Patty tried, setting her fork down and patting her meister on the shoulder. "It's not your fault. And this isn't so bad anyway! Besides, whenever we order pizza you just complain about the sauce or the cheese being too thick or too thin." She laughed quite loudly, unaware that her attempt to cheer Kid up had in fact had the opposite effect, instead making him groan and drop his head to the table. Liz shook her head just as Patty banged her fist on the table, accidentally landing it on the end of her spoon and flinging a rather large spoonful of mashed potatoes across the table, where it collided with the side of Black Star's face.

Whatever Liz had been about to say vanished from her mind as Black Star dropped the slice of bread he'd been about to put in his mouth and wiped the mashed potatoes from his face, an annoyed look in his eyes. _Uh-oh… _Liz couldn't help but think as he looked up the table toward where the flying potatoes had come from. Patty sat very straight, mouth shut tightly, and pointed her finger toward Soul, who was sitting next to her and hadn't noticed what happened. Liz glared at Black Star. _He's not gonna…_

No sooner had this thought formed itself than Black Star stood up on his chair, slammed his right foot on the table, and pointed his index finger at Soul, who looked up with a very confused expression. Liz slapped her hand to her forehead. _He's gonna._

"Hey! Soul!" Black Star called, Tsubaki whispering at him to get off the table and sit down. "You wanna start a fight with me? _Me?_ Well you're on!" He bent down and picked up a handful of mashed potatoes off his plate.

"Black Star, don't!" Tsubaki hissed, reaching out to stop him.

Soul glared at him. "What are you talking—?" Before he could finish his sentence, Black Star raised his arm and flung the potatoes toward his new opponent. Soul stopped short and ducked, which turned out to be a mistake as the potatoes instead hit Maka full in the face. Soul began to laugh, but cut off abruptly as his meister wiped the potatoes off her face, revealing a look of terrifying, icy anger beneath them.

"Oh, no!" Tsubaki gasped, her hands over her mouth. "Maka, I'm so sorry! He didn't mean to—"

"That's enough!" Liz shouted, but it didn't seem like anyone was listening. _Great,_ she thought. _This is just what I need…_

Maka stood up slowly, glaring daggers at Black Star, who seemed to be retreating somewhat under her gaze.

"W-What?" he challenged her feebly. "Y-You wanna fight? Well… bring it on…!" His grin faltered a bit as she threw down her napkin. She picked up a very buttery knife in one hand and a carrot cake in the other, stood still for a second, then screamed and charged at Black Star, who bolted for the other side of the table.

Tsubaki stood up and made toward the two, attempting to calm her meister, but as soon as she'd taken one step she was pelted with a barrage of peanuts which Maka had dodged, knocking her back into her seat. Patty started laughing again and stood up as well, picking up the bowl of marmalade. Recognizing the mischievous gleam in her sister's gaze, Liz's eyes widened. "Patty, no!"

Too late. "FOOD FIGHT!" Patty screamed, before chucking a fistful of marmalade at the closest person. It slammed into the back of Soul's head, and he turned to face her, an expression similar to hers on his face. He grabbed the bowl of corn next to his plate and rushed at Patty, who shrieked and ran in the other direction. As Patty ran behind Liz's chair, Liz tried to reach out and grab her, but instead her arm was hit with a slice of buttery bread. She retracted it instantly, turning to Kid, who still sat with his head down at the head of the table.

"Kid! Do something!" Liz shouted, grabbing his shoulder. He only shook his head and didn't look up.

"This is a disaster!" Kid complained, his voice muffled so that Liz had to strain to hear him. "A fiasco! A tragedy! How could I let something like this happen? I'm a failure! I'm not even worthy to serve Christmas dinner to anyone… I should just crawl in a hole and stay there until next Christmas…"

Liz was far too thoroughly annoyed with the whole situation to even try and cheer him up. As far as she was concerned, this really was all his fault to begin with. If he hadn't been so difficult when they were trying to cook dinner earlier, they would've had a nice, normal feast and everyone would've been happy, instead of chasing each other with butter knives, flinging mashed potatoes, and ducking and swerving around flying condiments. As a handful of peanuts collided painfully with her left arm, she was suddenly reminded most unwillingly of that Christmas eleven years ago, back when she first started to hate the holidays.

Completely fed up, Liz stood up so fast her chair fell over. No one noticed, of course, as they were all preoccupied with the escalating food fight. In a huff she turned and stormed out of the dining room, stopping once she was safe in the foyer. She leaned against a wall, the sounds of people yelling penetrating the walls and reverberating in the tall entrance hall. She didn't want to think about it now, she wouldn't allow herself to. It didn't matter, she'd told herself many times. It was so long ago, how could it? And yet, to this day, she was never able to thoroughly enjoy Christmas because the memory still made her blood boil.

Her brooding thoughts were cut short when the dining room doors flung open to reveal Black Star, who appeared to be running for his life. Maka was hot on his heels, an evil glare in her eyes and a carrot cake in each hand as she chased him out the front door and into the yard. Not far behind was Tsubaki, still calling for Black Star to apologize and stop this. Before Liz could decide whether to follow them or go hide upstairs, Soul burst through the doors, a look of terror on his face. Liz's puzzled look was answered in the form of Patty rushing through the doorway behind him, a knife in one hand and a bowl of butter in the other, a wicked grin in place as she cackled insanely.

_Uh-oh…_ Liz thought, slapping a hand to her forehead for the second time that night. _This won't end well…_

Again, before she could make the decision whether or not to leave the foyer, a great rumble sounded from just outside the front doors, making the floor shake. Curious, and somewhat worried, Liz headed straight for the entrance doors, which were still wide open. Upon reaching the front steps, she saw Soul standing a few feet in front of her, Patty on his back and the bowl of butter upside-down on his head. Maka had apparently tackled Black Star, who was lying on the ground—Maka on top of him—with his face covered in icing. But none of them were moving. They were all looking around for the source of the sound.

Not three seconds later, there was a loud crack and the ground to their left near the street split open a few feet, and out of the resulting hole crawled what looked like a giant, mechanical dragon. Its long neck and back had foot-long, metal spikes protruding from it, and its tail was covered in ones twice as long. Great, jointed wings were folded against its sides, and its head was swinging back and forth menacingly, steel glinting in the moonlight. Its eyes were a glowing, piercing red, and it kept opening and closing its mouth, smoke rings protruding from it with each motion. Most of her anger instantly vanished, and Liz froze to the spot. It was the most terrifying thing she'd ever laid eyes on.

"Kids, eh?" a seemingly bodiless voice said, and it took Liz a moment of shock to realize it had come from the humanoid creature on the beast's back. It looked like a man, but something was different. He had an overly-large mouth, with two-inch fangs for teeth that dripped with saliva. His eyes were opened very wide, as if he were either trying to see all around himself or pop them right out of his head. His hands were rested on what looked like a control panel, which must have been how he was controlling the dragon beneath him. He licked his fangs in anticipation as he looked them all over hungrily. "Looks like a Christmas feast for me! I'll be taking all your souls tonight!" He laughed maniacally as the dragon let out a fiery roar into the sky.

"A kishin egg?" Maka said, standing up. "Here?"

"Tsubaki!" Black Star yelled to his partner, jumping to his feet and turning to her, a determined look on his face.

"Right!" she replied obediently, before jumping into the air and shifting into her weapon form. Her meister caught her reflexively and ran straight for the mechanical monster.

"Be careful!" Maka shouted in an almost exasperated voice. "Watch out for all those spikes!"

"As if I need told that!" Black Star scoffed as he narrowly dodged a swipe from the beast's deadly tail. Without being told, Soul dropped Patty—who landed on her feet and took a few steps out of the way—and ran to Maka, grabbing her hand and changing to his scythe form so she too could join the fight. Patty turned toward her sister, who was still standing frozen just outside the door.

"Go get Kid!" Patty yelled, but Liz didn't move. She _couldn't_ move. All she could do was watch as the monster swung every inch of its spiked body at her friends. After a second of silence, Patty grunted and ran into the house, shooting a look between worry and anxiety at her sister as she passed.

Where did this thing come from? Why was it here? Why now? On the one day that Liz really just wanted to spend in peace and quiet and let pass as fast and uneventfully as possible? She knew it was part of their job, but maybe it was too much to hope for that at least today they be able to have a day off. The Academy hadn't had as much trouble with kishin eggs since the defeat of the kishin Asura three months ago, but the occasional one did of course always slip through. It seemed this was unfortunately another of those times.

About a minute later, Patty burst back through the doorway, Kid in tow.

"So this is it…" Kid muttered absently, his depression from earlier having completely faded, to be replaced with his usual determination. Liz glanced at him, about to ask what he meant, but he gave her no time. "Liz, Patty, transform."

Weapons in hand, Kid ran forward, joining the battle. As they fought, Liz couldn't help but notice that nothing they did seemed to have any effect. Soul's and Tsubaki's blades only clanged against the steel of the dragon, occasionally leaving small scratches but nothing of major consequence. Liz and Patty's gunfire only bounced off, which did more hindrance than help as it resulted in Maka and Black Star having to dodge the resulting ricochet. Even Black Star's soul wave attack had little effect. Of course, it didn't help that everyone was still at odds because of the dinner, particularly Maka and Black Star, who kept yelling at each other and getting in the other's way. Another disadvantage was Liz's lingering and ever-present fear. Though she felt somewhat safer in the hand of her meister than standing in the snow, it wasn't enough to demolish her fear completely, and the strength of her shots and the trio's resonance rate were suffering because of it. The only plus was that the dragon's size made localized attacks difficult for it, and they had managed to keep dodging with not too much difficulty. Though as fatigue began to take them, it was unclear for how long it would stay that way.

"Out of my way!" Black Star yelled, shouldering Maka aside as he ran in for an attack, Tsubaki's enchanted sword mode grasped tightly in his hands.

"Hey!" Maka shouted back, panting heavily. "Watch it, Black Star! You're gonna get someone hurt!"

"Only this monster!" He jumped high and swung Tsubaki down, only to hear her clang on the surface of the dragon's side once again. They noticed, however, as he landed in the snow, that it had left a considerably larger scratch than any previous attack. "That's what I'm sayin'!" Black Star cheered, grinning.

"Don't be so cocky!" Maka scolded him, her grip on Soul tightening. "And watch out or you'll get hit!" _Why can't they just shut up? _Liz wondered, her head starting to ache from the bickering.

Black Star turned around. "How many times do I gotta tell ya, Maka? This thing's nothing compared to me! Look!" He turned to point to the dent he'd made in its side, just as it swung its raised claw down toward him, slamming into him from the side and sending him flying with a pained yell a few yards backward into the snow.

"I told you!" Maka said, though she didn't sound happy. She ran forward and jumped onto its still raised claw, using it as leverage to reach the head, from which she leapt forward and aimed an attack at the man on top, whose eyes widened further (which Liz didn't think was possible) before he hastily pulled a lever, swinging the head violently to the right. Maka lost her balance and was flung from the beast, landing in a heap in the snow below.

"You kids are starting to get on my nerves," the man complained. "Way too much trouble. I'll go find some weak townspeople, they'll be a much easier feast than you lot."

"Wait!" Kid shouted, rushing forward as the dragon leapt back into the hole it had come from. Just as Kid reached the crater, a whooshing sound swept by and just like that, the hole was gone. Kid growled in defeat, before letting go of Liz and Patty, who were back in human form before they hit the ground. All three turned and headed back for the others.

Soul was on his feet, helping Maka stand. She looked tired, and had quite a few bruises. Her dress was a bit torn, and she had a slight limp in her left leg, which Liz guessed was from that last fall. Tsubaki was kneeling next to Black Star, who was still sitting on the ground, his teeth gritted tightly and his hand clutched firmly over his upper right arm, beads of sweat running down his face. His shirt sleeve was torn beyond belief, and there was a two-inch-wide gash running the length of his entire arm, blood gushing out from it. The snow around him had been stained dark red; Liz's eyes widened at the sight.

Maka walked over to him, looking concerned. "Hey, are you—?"

"This is your fault," he said through clenched teeth, squeezing his eyes shut as Tsubaki helped him stand. "If you hadn't been yelling stupid things at me back then, I would've seen that attack coming."

"Are you kidding me?" Maka scoffed angrily, all worry gone from her voice. "You're the one who just stood there marveling at your fantastic attack. If you'd been smart and gotten outta there right away, he wouldn't have been able to reach you in the first place!"

"Whatever," Black Star retorted. "You're just too small to admit you were getting in my way. I get it."

"_What?_ _I _was in _your_ way? What is _wrong_ with you?"

Soul put his hand on Maka's shoulder and tried to pull her away. "Maka, come on, let's go—"

"You're infuriating!" she shouted at Black Star, moving to shake off her partner but swinging her arm with a bit too much force and elbowing him quite hard in the face as a result. He yelled and backed up a few steps, a hand over his mouth. Maka didn't even notice as he spit a mouthful of blood and a broken tooth into the snow. Instead, Patty ran over to make sure he was alright (he flinched momentarily at her touch, still recalling her attack on him earlier at dinner) as Liz watched the entire exchange, feeling a bizarre mixture of concern, anger, and annoyance.

"Infuriating? Me?" Black Star said, taking a step forward while Tsubaki tried to get him to back away.

"You think you're so big, so powerful, so invincible and always free of fault! Like you're better than all of us!" Maka went on, her face flushing in anger. "Well you know what? If you don't need us, then let's just stop being a team right now!"

Kid looked alarmed at this proposition. "Maka, wait, don't go saying—"

"Fine by me," Black Star grunted over Kid, who offered a disbelieving "Huh?" in reply.

Everyone was quiet for a moment, before Maka stood up straight, turned on her heel and started to march off. "Come on, Soul, let's get outta here." She stopped when she saw him. "What happened to you?"

Soul raised his eyebrows. "What—? You—"

"Never mind, just come on," Maka cut him off, grabbing his arm and leading him forcefully toward the street.

"Hey!" Kid yelled, trying to get her attention. "This is stupid! Come on! Maka!" But she didn't turn back.

Black Star stared after her with a stony expression, wincing every few seconds. "Whatever," he said again. "Let her go. Like I care."

Kid rounded on him, glare in place. "I don't understand you two. You're gonna let some stupid, pointless fight break up our team?"

"Just stay out of it, Kid," Black Star replied icily. "You seemed to be good at that earlier." Kid stared at Black Star, at a loss for words.

Tsubaki took the time now to step forward and bow slightly to Kid. "I'm sorry, Kid, but I really need to get Black Star to the hospital." Black Star protested that he was alright and didn't need a bunch of doctors fussing over him, but no one was listening to him anymore.

"Yeah," Kid answered vaguely, not looking at her. "Right."

Tsubaki forced an awkward smile before leading the still fighting Black Star away from the house, through the uneven, dirty, bloody snow that had just that morning been so perfect and white. It didn't feel at all like Christmas anymore, and Liz wasn't sure if she was thankful for that or not. In a way, she'd gotten her wish, and everyone else was just as bitter as she was on Christmas and didn't seem to want to acknowledge its existence. She supposed she should have felt something about the scene she'd just witnessed and hadn't taken any part in, but for whatever reason she felt… nothing. Not sadness, regret, or even anger or annoyance. Just… nothing.

Patty looked downtrodden, her eyes filled with silent tears as they went inside and locked the front door. Kid still had a look of disbelief as he retreated into the dining room—presumably to clean up the mess—and closed the doors behind him. But as she climbed the stairs to take a shower and get to bed, Liz's face was expressionless. She knew she should've felt something about their team's apparent disbanding, and maybe if it had been any other day and she hadn't been so angry with every single one of them beforehand, she would have. But right there, right then, she just didn't _care_.

After a long shower of washing mashed potatoes and marmalade out of her hair, Liz crawled thankfully into bed and glanced at the clock beside her, noticing it was around eleven o'clock. _Ugh… Still Christmas…_ she thought, turning her back to her bedside table. After everything that had happened that day, all she wanted was for Christmas to be over. It didn't matter what happened in the morning, as long as it wasn't Christmas, Liz felt she'd be able to handle it. Maybe this fight would blow over eventually, too. All she cared about right then was sleep, and the prospect of December 26th.

Little did she know that Christmas wasn't going to let her go that easily.

* * *

><p>Yeesh, what a sucky Christmas, huh? Liz is such a Scrooge... haha. But wait! It gets better! I'll get Chapter 2 up in a few days, kay?<p>

Till then!

-oMM


	2. Day 2: Confusion

Hi again everybody! Have a good couple days? Well, I'm back with Chapter 2! (And yes, some of it's gonna seem repetetive, but that's kind of the point, hahaha)

Heeeeeeere we go!

* * *

><p>"It's Christmas! It's Christmas!"<p>

_Wait, what…? _Liz thought as she opened her eyes, quickly adjusting to the sunlight now streaming through her bedroom windows. She propped herself up on her elbows and glanced at the clock beside her bed, which read 8:10 AM. _What is she doing? Yesterday was Christmas… Why can't she just sleep in like a normal kid?_

Disgruntled and a tiny bit confused, Liz got out of bed and opened her door. Her sister, who was standing at the top of the steps about to descend, turned to face her, a bright smile on her face. "Morning, sis! Merry Christmas!"

"Patty, there's no need to say 'Merry Christmas' on the day after Christmas. One day of it is bad enough," Liz replied dryly.

Patty fixed her with a puzzled look. "Well, duh," she answered. "But today's Christmas, isn't it? I won't say 'Merry Christmas' tomorrow, promise!" She held up her right hand as if to solidify this vow.

Liz furrowed her brow. "But… yesterday was Christmas. Today's the 26th. …Right?"

"No, silly," the younger girl said, shaking her head. "Yesterday was only Christmas _Eve_, remember? Christmas has just started! Yay!" She laughed loudly. "And today, we get presents!" Her eyes seemed to light up at the thought.

"But…" Liz continued to protest, unsure of whether Patty was trying to play a joke or something. "You got presents yesterday. A bunch of toys, a pair of boots, this game where—"

"Hey, if you already know what I'm getting, don't ruin the surprise!" Patty interrupted hastily, shaking her hands and head wildly. With that, she turned and rushed down the stairs, still laughing excitedly.

Liz glared after her sister, sure she was the victim of some kind of prank. She turned around and headed back into her room. She turned on the light and glanced to the corner where she'd set her pile of gifts from the previous day—except they weren't there. To her mild surprise, all she saw was the bare carpet. She looked around the room briefly to see if she'd set them somewhere else accidentally, and only when she decided they weren't in her room did she throw on some clothes and head downstairs, determined to get to the bottom of this.

When she reached the living room, once again she was met with the sight of her sister sitting under the tree, surrounded by beautifully-wrapped gifts. "See? Presents!" she said happily.

"Where's Kid?" Liz asked, looking around.

Patty flung her arm out behind her, pointing at the kitchen door. "He's in there, makin' breakfast." Liz paused for a second, eyeing her sister, before heading into the kitchen.

Kid was standing at the counter, pouring some sugar into a cup of coffee. "Morning, Liz," he greeted, turning to face her. He frowned at the look on her face. "What's wrong?"

Liz sat down at the table, feeling slightly defeated. "I'm having the strangest feeling of déjà vu…" she offered, resting her head in her hand. "…What day is it?" she added, her eyes narrowed very slightly.

Kid's eyebrows creased in slight confusion. "Well, it's… Christmas Day…" he answered, sounding a bit unsure. Liz sighed and shook her head. She knew now it couldn't be a joke of Patty's, because there was no way Kid would participate in something so pointless and childish, especially if he knew it would make her angry. So instead she decided the whole previous day must have been nothing but a very vivid dream, and it was a mere coincidence that this Christmas seemed to be going very similarly. This didn't really make her feel any better, however, as it still meant she had a whole Christmas Day to endure.

"…Are you okay?" Kid asked, jerking Liz out of her thoughts and making her jump. "You seem… confused about something. I know you don't like Christmas, but it's only—"

"I'm fine, don't worry," she answered quickly. "Just tired, I guess." She tried to offer a smile, but the look on Kid's face told her it was obvious she was faking it, so she gave up and resumed her gloomy countenance.

"Alright…" Kid replied skeptically. "Want some toast?" he asked, indicating the toast which had popped up a moment ago.

"Sure. Strawberry jam, please," she added before she could stop herself.

While Kid fought with the toast, Liz sat in silence at the table. Eventually, Patty burst through the kitchen doors, glaring at them.

"Come on, guys, present time!" She grabbed their arms and yanked them out into the living room, seating them on the couch. "So… Who should go first? Well, it's Kid's house so…"

Kid leaned back against the couch and closed his eyes. "No, you go ahead, Patty."

"Wheeee! Thanks Kid!" With that, she tore into the first gift. Not only had the conversation slightly unnerved Liz, but as she watched everyone open their gifts she only became increasingly more surprised, as every one turned out exactly as it had in her dream. Even the extra gifts Kid brought them after they'd finished with everything else. Liz didn't say much throughout the whole affair, and only when Kid sent them upstairs so he could clean up did she finally move from her spot on the couch.

As she carried her things upstairs, she couldn't help but think it was weird how her dream had been so vivid, and now things were happening just as she'd seen. _Maybe I should ask Kid if he knows anything about prophetic dreams…_ she wondered, tossing her things in her room and rushing back down the stairs.

Kid wasn't in the living room, which was now neat and tidy again. "Kid?" she called, glancing around. After taking a few steps, she heard voices coming from the den across the room. She jogged over and leaned her ear against the door, straining to hear. She could make out the voices of her meister and Lord Death, who often used the full-sized mirror in the den to communicate with his son, but they were too muffled for her to decipher what was being said. So she silently turned the knob and pushed the door open a crack, careful not to hit the bell hanging from the sprig of mistletoe on the doorframe and give away her position.

"…going pretty well," Kid was saying. "Same as every year, really. Patty's bouncing around the house and Liz is sulking as usual."

"Glad to hear it," came the funny voice of Lord Death. "I really wish I could be there to celebrate with you, Kiddo, but…"

"It's alright," Kid answered stiffly. "I know you're busy. I'm glad you called."

There was a moment's silence, before Lord Death spoke again, this time his voice more grim.

"There's another reason I've contacted you," he said. "Something important."

"Important?" Kid repeated, his tone suddenly serious.

"Apparently," his father went on, "there have been brief sightings of a dangerous kishin egg in the area lately. It's already eaten over fifteen human souls in the past two days, but it keeps somehow disappearing and ending up untraceable. I didn't want to bring you into it unless it was absolutely necessary, but, well…" He trailed off, before raising his voice again. "I don't want you to go looking for it," he warned, as if knowing what Kid was thinking. "Just keep an eye out, okay? It may show up again today, with so many people out and about. If you happen to see it, I'm trusting you to take care of it. As a Grim Reaper. Before it kills again."

There was another pause, before Kid answered, "I will."

As they bid goodbye and a happy holiday, Liz carefully closed the door and crept back upstairs. She was remembering how in her dream, Kid had seemed distracted all day, had kept glancing around as if looking for something. She couldn't help but think that it must have been because of the conversation she'd just overheard. There was also of course the kishin egg they'd fought at the end of the dream, and suddenly she had a nagging suspicion that that was the very same one Kid and his father were just discussing.

Soon Patty came to fetch her sister, as they all prepared to leave for Maka's apartment. Just as in Liz's dream, they found themselves stopped at the doorway while Kid marveled at the perfect coating of snow on the front lawn. Liz simply sighed and went along with it as the events played out. Since it was all happening exactly as it had in her dream, nothing surprised her anymore. It was also even more difficult for her to be cheery than usual, as she now had to live this Christmas Day not once, but twice. It was like her worst nightmare, and she couldn't escape it.

"Oooooh, look!" Patty suddenly called as they walked down the sidewalk, making them all stop. Liz glanced across the street and saw the same fortune teller's shop that they'd visited in her dream. Instantly her mood dropped even lower, if that were possible. "A fortune teller! Can we go?"

"I don't know, Patty," Kid answered, narrowing his eyes at the building. "People like that are usually just frauds trying to cheat innocent people out of their money. It's probably ridiculously over-priced." Liz didn't say anything, but silently prayed that this time Kid would be firmer in his conviction.

"Aww, come on," Patty pleaded, tugging on her meister's arm. "Pleeeeease?"

"Okay, okay," Kid gave in. "Just for a little." Liz groaned as they made their way across the street and entered the shop. She cringed as the same odor of smoky perfume greeted them, the same dark, shabby shawls and curtains, the same old, musty armchairs.

After a moment, Avea came out to greet them. As Liz predicted, she didn't speak, but sat down and indicated the seat across the table, which Patty happily took. Kid followed moments later, and when it was finally Liz's turn, she sat down which such disgruntled force a small cloud of dust lifted from her chair, adding to the smoky atmosphere. Avea smiled and held out her hand, which Liz reluctantly took, closing her eyes.

_There's no need to be so gloomy, you know._

Liz shook her head. _Yeah, well, I'm not having the best day, okay?_

_There's something on your mind,_ the old woman went on. _Something you're unsure about._

Liz paused, considering whether or not to tell the woman the truth. But she reasoned that someone like this had probably heard or seen many stranger things, so she decided to chance it. _It's just that… I had this dream last night. Except it didn't feel like a dream at the time. Heck, it still doesn't feel like a dream. But it must have been, because it was like I was living this exact same Christmas Day. _It was difficult to explain exactly how it felt, but she did her best. _Like… all the same stuff keeps happening. It's just… weird. I don't like it._

_Hmm…_ Avea hummed in thought. _Well that certainly is different. It's not every day you have the advantage of knowing what's going to happen._

_Advantage? _ Liz repeated. _Yeah, right. This is terrible. I have to live this stupid Christmas twice. I can't even think of anything that could be worse._

_But what's so bad? It's Christmas, after all. Most people would love it if Christmas came more than once a year._

_Yeah, well, I'm not most people,_ Liz snapped. _Personally, I think even once a year is too often._

There was a pause, where Liz felt the old woman's hand shift in hers. _It seems you really can't see what it is that makes this day so grand. Well, let me give you some advice._ Liz rolled her eyes, but then remembered no one could see them. _Maybe you should try and open your mind a little to the idea of Christmas, and the things you should treasure on this day above all days. You might be surprised at what you've been blindly missing all this time._

When Avea let go of her hand, Liz opened her eyes to see the old woman smiling warmly at her. She scowled and got up, leading the way out the door without a word. After a moment, the other two emerged behind her.

"Hey, what was that about?" Kid asked with a frown as Patty forged ahead.

Liz shook her head. "Sorry," she answered in a less than heartfelt way. "It's just…" She paused for a moment. She'd wanted to ask Kid about her dream earlier but had gotten distracted, so why not just do it now? "I had this weird dream last night…"

She explained again about the dream and how it had seemed so real, also how it looked as though she was living it again today. Kid was puzzled by this news, and was unsure of what it could mean. Also, and for which she was quite grateful, he didn't attempt to refute her complaints by telling her how wonderful Christmas was and how she should enjoy being able to have it twice in a row.

Soon enough they arrived at their destination and knocked on the door. "Come in," came the same muffled reply from inside. As they entered the house, Liz braced herself for the explosion of Christmas inside, and was visibly less surprised than the other two.

"Hey, Soul," Liz greeted him dully, plopping down on the nearest chair as he stood, making Kid and Patty jump. "Where's Maka?" she asked before they could inquire about the decorations, though she felt she already knew the answer.

"She's changing clothes," Soul answered predictably. "Said she wanted to be ready early, but I think she just wants to show off her new dress." He rolled his eyes as Blair came in with a tray of cookies, forcing them on the guests.

Before long Maka came out from the hallway, brandishing her new green and black dress. "My dad got something right for once," she said happily. She then noticed the visitors. "Hey, guys! Merry Christmas!"

"You look so pretty!" Patty breathed, and Maka smiled brightly.

"Yeah," Soul agreed. "It looks great on you."

Again, Maka frowned at him through the blush on her pale skin. "You're not wearing that to Christmas dinner, are you?"

"I was planning to, yes."

"I think he looks fine!" came Blair's unasked opinion.

"I don't think so, mister," Maka ignored her. She grabbed Soul and dragged him off, turning and addressing Kid, Liz, and Patty. "We'll call Black Star and be at your place around seven. See you guys later!"

"Well, we'd better get going," Liz said finally, having tuned out most of the conversation until then. After all, she'd heard it before, so why bother listening?

"Yeah, if we gotta make dinner, we should get started," Patty agreed. Blair looked at them with a puzzled expression, but as she opened her mouth to speak, Liz grabbed Kid and headed for the door. "Bye-bye!" Patty called as they hurried away.

On the way back, Liz noticed once again how Kid kept looking back and forth, watching out for what she knew now to be the kishin egg his father had warned him about. She thought of saying something about it, but the fact that he still hadn't told them held her back. She wondered why he hadn't confided in them. They were his weapons, after all, weren't they? Shouldn't he tell them about something like this? On top of her dissatisfaction with the day altogether, Liz began to feel a slight resentment toward her meister, which only made her feel worse. This anger didn't dissipate as they prepared for dinner.

"You know it's pointless to do that, right?" she said bitterly as Kid continued to measure the turkey. "Black Star will just eat twice as much as everyone else anyway."

Kid stood up and stared at the turkey. "I hadn't thought of that," he admitted in an awed voice. "I'll have to start all over and account for… What are you doing?" he demanded suddenly.

Liz sighed, before answering ruefully, "Cutting the celery. Got a problem?"

"This is all wrong!" he exclaimed, rushing over. "Look at this! Every single one of these pieces is cut a different size! How can we possibly eat this?" As he set to work, Liz noticed that her chopping job was indeed much worse than it had been in her dream, but she found she didn't care. If it meant extra work for Kid, it was really his own fault.

Later, Liz heard the knock on the door from the kitchen, where she stayed while the other two allowed their guests entry. As she took the last of the food out to the dining room, the others entered from the foyer.

"What the hell is all this?" Black Star demanded predictably upon seeing the 'feast' spread out before them. In a valiant attempt to make something about this day different from her dream, Liz had insisted on a new assortment of foods, though altogether it still wasn't much of a Christmas dinner. Today their table was laden with cranberry sauce, scalloped potatoes (the pre-boxed kind), dry cereal, plain angel hair pasta (the sauce of course had been too inconsistent), soup broth, and chocolate pudding.

"Dinner," Liz answered again, taking her seat near the head of the table. She didn't listen as Kid complained about the meal, as Tsubaki forced Black Star into his seat, or as Soul and Maka joined them at last. After a while of silence, the scene from her dream began to play out. The only difference was that this time, the food fight was started with chocolate pudding rather than mashed potatoes. Also, she didn't bother to try and stop it. She simply got up from the table and left before things got too out of hand.

If she remembered correctly, which she was sure she did as she leaned against the wall in the foyer and glared at the floor, next would be the kishin egg attack, the event she was dreading most of all. She didn't like fighting creepy things to begin with, especially when they spit fire and were covered in spikes. Not to mention the fight in her dream hadn't gone so well, and she wasn't too keen on another failure, even if the first one hadn't really happened.

Soon enough, the stampede of dinner guests came crashing through the dining room door and tearing across the foyer, bursting out into the snowy front lawn. Liz sighed heavily, before following them outside.

Before long, the familiar rumble sounded, and the great mechanical dragon emerged from beneath the ground, exclaiming about how he planned to take all their souls.

"A kishin egg?" Maka said, surprised. "Here?"

"Tsubaki!" Black Star shouted, getting to his feet.

"Right!" she answered, shifting to her weapon form and flying into his hands.

"Be careful!" Maka called as Black Star rushed in for the first attack. "Watch out for all those spikes!"

"As if I need told that!" he replied haughtily. _Here we go again…_ Liz thought as Maka and Soul joined the fight and Patty rushed in to fetch Kid, returning with him seconds later.

"So this is it…" Kid said in a low voice. "Liz, Patty, transform."

Just as in her dream, Liz noticed that none of them were resonating well with each other and as a result their attacks weren't having much effect. And it seemed as though Maka and Black Star were at odds just as much as ever.

"Out of my way!"

"Hey!" Maka yelled as Black Star shoved her aside and ran for the beast. "Watch it, Black Star! You're gonna get someone hurt!"

"Only this monster!" he replied as he attacked, yielding a wide dent in the dragon's tough metal side. "That's what I'm sayin'!"

"Don't be so cocky!" Maka retorted angrily. She opened her mouth to speak again, but before she could, Liz cut her off.

"Black Star! Watch out for its arm!" she shouted, suddenly remembering what happened in her dream and although she was thoroughly annoyed with all of them, she still didn't want to see him get hurt for real.

"What?" Black Star began, turning just in time to see the dragon lift its arm swiftly into the air. He leaped backwards and just barely missed the swinging claws, landing on his back in the snow.

"Wow," Patty breathed beside Liz. "Nice one, sis, I didn't even see that coming." Liz didn't reply. She was momentarily relieved that Black Star had avoided danger, but her satisfaction didn't last long.

Seeing an opening, Kid suddenly jumped high into the air and charged at the monster. He landed on the end of its nose and ran up the head, dodging the numerous spikes. Liz could feel Patty's excitement in his other hand, but this had completely surprised the older sister, who was almost shaking in fear, wondering what in the world her meister was thinking.

"We've got this," Kid said with conviction as he took aim at the man on the back of the beast. He held out his weapons and the man glared at them, startled. But when he pulled the triggers, Liz felt herself freeze up, unable to fire. Startled, and thrown momentarily off balance, Kid stumbled, causing Patty's shot to bounce off a particularly large spike, and instead of hitting its mark, it collided with the control panel in a mass of sparks.

With a cry of anger, the man began to fiddle madly with the panel, attempting to regain control. The dragon swung its long neck dangerously, sending Kid flying off of it with a surprised yell. He landed hard on his back in the snow, Liz and Patty reverting to human form in the air and landing on their feet beside him.

"What have you done?" the kishin egg demanded. He growled angrily, still pressing buttons and pulling levers as sparks continued to fly from his control panel. "I'll get you for this!" With that, the mechanical beast leapt back into the ground and disappeared. Maka started to run after it, but it was gone before she reached strike range.

"What was that about?" Kid hissed as he pushed himself up, wincing slightly. He glared at Liz, who shrank back under his gaze.

"I'm sorry," she offered lamely. "I was… distracted." It was the truth, actually.

"We should go," Maka said as the other weapons shifted forms as well. "Merry Christmas, guys." She smiled at Kid, Liz, and Patty, but didn't look at Black Star. Soul waved as they turned and walked away.

Black Star glared after Maka, hands on his hips.

"Come on, Black Star," Tsubaki began carefully. "Let's go." Black Star huffed and stalked off as Tsubaki turned and offered a gentle smile to the other three. "Thanks for inviting us!" she said before hurrying after her meister.

"That could've gone better," Kid said grumpily, dusting the snow off his clothes. As he led the way back inside, Liz couldn't help but disagree with him. After all, it seemed as though it had actually gone worse in her dream the previous night, so even something like this was an improvement. Though she still was far from happy with the way the day had gone.

When they got inside and closed the door, Kid once again retreated into the dining room, probably to clean up after the food fight. Patty yawned and said she was going to bed.

"Yeah, goodnight," Liz answered absently, still watching the dining room door. As Patty disappeared up the stairs, Liz passed through the kitchen to get some cleaning supplies before entering the dining room and observing its state for the first time.

It was a complete disaster. There were scalloped potatoes and chocolate pudding all over the walls, and pasta draped over the chairs and light fixtures. The bowls of broth had been knocked over, their contents spilled across the table and onto the floor, ruining the tablecloth and carpet. The cereal was positively everywhere, as if it had exploded from the center of the room.

"Looks like a tornado hit this place," Liz said, still gaping at the room. Kid looked over from where he sat, leaning against the table.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, a surprised look on his face.

Liz held up the cleaning supplies in her hands. "I came to help you." She wasn't sure what was keeping her from just going to bed, tired and exasperated as she was after having lived this terrible Christmas twice, but now that she was there she couldn't leave. Kid didn't say anything, but watched her quizzically as she started wiping a particularly large spot of pudding off the nearest wall. Really, she wanted to bring up the conversation he'd had with his father earlier, the one she'd accidentally overheard. But she wasn't sure how to start, as it would mean admitting she'd been eavesdropping.

"Hey… Are you okay?" Kid asked suddenly, jerking her out of her plans. "You've been acting strange all day. I know you don't like Christmas, but today you've seemed more… distracted than sulky, like usual. Back there, when you didn't fire, I could tell it was more than just fear holding you back."

Liz stopped cleaning and sat down on the cereal-strewn floor, carefully avoiding the large spot of broth on the carpet. "Remember that dream I told you about earlier?" she began. "Well, the rest of the day ended up happening just as it had in my dream. That's why I was able to warn Black Star about that attack, because I knew it was coming. It's just… weird." Surprisingly, it felt good to talk about this strange day out loud, and with someone she knew wouldn't think her crazy because of it. "The fact that this day was so similar to the dream… I don't know. Living through this Christmas once in the dream was bad enough, now I have to do it for real, too? Ugh, it's like a nightmare…" She shook her head, just thinking about it making her anger rise again.

Kid was silent for a while. After a minute he picked up a rag and stood, turning to scrub at a spot on the wall.

"I know this isn't what you wanna hear," he said finally. "But maybe this whole dream thing is trying to tell you something. Maybe it happened for a reason, you know?"

"You mean a reason other than making my life miserable?" Liz scoffed sarcastically.

Kid paused carefully before continuing. "Maybe you should try and change your outlook on Christmas a little. I don't know what happened in the past to make you hate it so much," he continued hastily as she opened her mouth to retort, "and you don't need to tell me until you're ready. But whatever it is, it's in the past, isn't it? It doesn't matter anymore." It wasn't as though this had never occurred to her, but there was something about the way he said it that made it seem irrefutable, and whatever she'd been about to say was suddenly lost. "You should… try to have some fun on Christmas, for your sister's sake if nothing else. You know how much she enjoys the holidays. And she cares about you more than anything." He paused in scrubbing at the wall and looked down, before adding, "We both do." He turned and offered her a comforting smile.

Liz stared at him for a minute, surprised at the speech he'd just given her. Never before had he brought up the reason she hated Christmas, or so much as suggested that she try and let that hatred go. Usually he just let her do what she wanted and tried not to make her even more unhappy. But now, for the first time, it was like he was trying to comfort her, cheer her up, rather than stay out of it. In a sudden impulse, she dropped her rag and stepped forward, wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug.

Kid stiffened in surprise at the sudden show of affection. "Uh… Liz?" he said awkwardly. "Are you—?"

"Just shut up for a sec, okay?" she interrupted, not wanting to ruin the effect of his short speech. "You've said enough."

When it came down to it, she wasn't ready to talk about the past just yet. Not even with Kid. But someday she might be. Also, she couldn't necessarily say she had a different outlook on Christmas just yet. But her immediate mood was considerably lighter. This talk with Kid helped, really. It was nice to just listen, to know he cared, even if he didn't often say it.

When they were almost done cleaning, Kid sent her to bed saying he would finish up himself. She gave a slightly awkward goodnight before heading upstairs, taking a quick shower, and falling into bed. The clock on her bedside table read somewhere around 11:50. Her last thought before losing consciousness was that even though this Christmas had been slightly better than her dream had been, she was still more than glad it was over. And once again, she found she couldn't wait for the day after Christmas to come.

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><p>Haha, once again I didn't even re-read this, and I wrote it almost a year ago... Hope there's no mistakes, heh heh. Ah, well XD<p>

Reviews are love! Now gimme some lovin'! :D haha

-oMM


	3. Day 3: Insanity

Meant to put this up sooner, but I've been really busy over the past week. Don't worry though, I'll make sure I get it all up and done before Christmas. Plus, this chapter's pretty short, as is the next one, so I'll try to put less time between updates for them :D

Also, haven't said this yet, but thanks a ton for all the awesome reviews! Glad to know other people are enjoying this too :D haha

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><p>"It's Christmas! It's Christmas!"<p>

Liz sat bolt upright in bed, jerked fully awake by the sound of her sister's excited voice from the hall.

_No way…_

She threw back the covers and leapt out of bed, pulling open her bedroom door as Patty reached the top of the stairs.

"Patty!" Liz called before the younger sister could say anything. "What day is it?"

Patty gave her a quizzical look. "It's Christmas, silly!" She laughed her excited laugh and skipped down the stairs. Liz stared after her, in complete disbelief. Quickly she turned and rushed back into her room. She checked the corner where she'd stashed her gifts hopefully, but once again she saw nothing there.

Her mind racing, she hurried downstairs without changing out of her pajamas, stumbling into the living room to find Patty sitting under the tree, which was once again laden with unopened gifts, a sight she was now seeing for the third time. _This can't be happening…_ Liz thought to herself, starting to get mildly frantic. There was no way she dreamed it twice.

She forced her way into the kitchen to find Kid popping bread down into the toaster and turning to pour a cup of coffee. He turned around at the sudden disturbance.

"Liz? What's wrong?" he asked, looking concerned at the look on her face.

"Is it… Christmas?" she inquired carefully, almost afraid of the answer.

Kid stared at her. "…Yes…" he replied slowly.

"Oh, no…" she muttered, hands on her head. "No way… What's…? This can't… Why…?" It was like her confused brain couldn't form complete sentences. "I must be dreaming. That's it. Yeah. I just need to wake up." In an effort to force herself awake, she picked up a metallic plate off the stack on the counter by the door and without any hesitation slammed it into her forehead. All this served, however, was to add 'massive headache' to her list of current discomforts.

"Whoa, hey!" Kid shouted, rushing forward and grabbing the plate out of her hand, setting it well outside her reach. He put his hands on her shoulders and stared into her eyes, guiding her into a chair. "What happened?" he asked sincerely, not letting go of her shoulders and forcing her to look at him.

Liz shook her head. "I've already seen this… This day… I've already lived it twice!"

"What?" he said, a blank look on his face.

She let out an exasperated sigh, before jumping up and rushing out into the living room, dragging Kid along. "Present time, Patty!" Liz told her sister, who squealed and set to work opening the nearest gift. Liz began calling out what each gift was just before it was opened, and she was right every time. She had Patty open all of her gifts as well after she'd finished her own, and once again she knew everything that was coming.

"You know," Kid began. "If you wanna look for all the gifts and know ahead of time, that's fine, but you shouldn't spoil it for Patty like that."

"That's not it," Liz insisted, trying to make him see that she wasn't crazy. "What about the other gifts, the dollhouse and the snow globe?"

Kid looked visibly startled. "H-How did you know about those? I had my father hide them, at the Academy… There's no way you could've…" He shook his head, glancing over at Patty, who was shifting through her gifts and appeared not to have noticed the conversation. "That was supposed to be a surprise," he added in an undertone, almost scolding her.

Liz grabbed his shoulders and shook him hard, trying to make him understand. "They _were_ a surprise! Two days ago! When you first gave them to us!"

Kid stared at her. "What?"

With an exasperated sigh, she dropped her arms and shook her head. It looked like there was no way he was going to believe her.

"Is something wrong?" Patty asked.

"No," Liz answered in a defeated sort of tone. "Nothing." She then turned to Kid. "You'll wanna hang in the den," she said with a sigh, heading for the stairs. "Your dad has something important to tell you."

Kid started to say something, but Liz was no longer listening. She'd reached the conclusion that this wasn't a dream, nor had either of the past two days been. But that didn't mean she was any closer to figuring out exactly why she was reliving the same day over and over again, and why no one else seemed to be affected like she was. It just… didn't make any sense.

Predictably, the day began to play out exactly as the last two had. They flew across the lawn, walked through town, the usual. This time, however, Liz was adamant about not visiting the fortune teller. Instead she waited impatiently outside while Patty and Kid went in, meeting up with them after and refusing to discuss why her mood that day was exceptionally bad. She didn't know what to do other than simply go with the flow as they visited Maka and Soul. The boredom she expressed at seeing Maka's dress must have been obvious, because Maka seemed mildly hurt at her reaction, but Patty and Soul's reassurance that she looked great raised her spirits again, and she promised to meet them later all the same.

When they made dinner, Liz tried to slice her celery evenly to avoid the fiasco she knew would follow, but soon enough she was interrupted yet again. She simply thrust her knife into Kid's hand with an angry retort of "Here, you do it!" before storming out of the kitchen.

As a result, their dinner that night ended up consisting mostly of sweets and snacks, since Patty had done most of the deciding with Liz off sulking. As moods were just as sullen, the now familiar food fight began once again. This time Liz just sat there and watched it happen. There were candy and cakes flying everywhere. Liz did her best to dodge what she could, but it was really a hopeless cause. Soon she had icing all down her arms and small bruises from being pelted with tiny sweets. Eventually, Black Star ran from the room, Maka at his heels and everyone else in tow, leaving Liz alone with a still-pouting Kid. From the dining room, she never felt the tremor from outside, and only when Patty came rushing in saying there was a problem did she realize it was time for the battle she'd already fought—and lost—twice.

She wasn't surprised to see the great mechanical dragon outside, but that didn't really make it any less terrifying. As usual, Kid wasted no time in joining the fight, which progressed much like it had the first Christmas two days ago.

"Out of my way!" Black Star shouted as he shoved past Maka.

"Hey! Watch it, Black Star!" came her reply. "You're gonna get someone hurt!"

"Only this monster!" His strike had the same effect as before, leaving a mid-sized dent in the dragon's side. "That's what I'm sayin'!"

"Don't be so cocky! And watch out or you'll get hit!"

Liz was finding it hard to pay attention to the battle, seeing as it was one she'd fought before. Her brain was still conflicted in its attempt to reason out what was going on, and why no one else seemed to notice the strange happenings. She was so distracted she forgot to warn Black Star of the dragon's attack, and once again she had to watch as he was violently slammed aside, landing in the snow yards away. Again Maka made a rush for the man, and again the dragon retreated beneath the ground. As Maka and Black Star continued to fight, Liz put her head in her hands and tuned them out.

After Maka stormed off and Tsubaki forced Black Star to a hospital, the trio returned to the safety of their home. Kid went to clean the dining room and Patty yawned and went off to bed. Liz stood in the foyer for a moment more, determined to get to the bottom of this.

After a long shower, Liz returned to her room, noting the time on her clock to be almost 11:30 PM. Since she had some time to kill, she picked up a book from her shelf and began to absently flip through the pages, letting her mind wander. She'd decided. She was going to simply stay up all night. That way, there was no way she could miss the next day, right?

Before long, she looked at the clock and saw that it was 11:58. Curious, she set the book aside and took to staring at the clock unblinkingly. When the minute hand finally reached the twelve, the strangest thing happened. Both hands suddenly began rotating in reverse, as if someone were winding them from within. Faster and faster they spun, until the hour hand had made a full two revolutions and both hands stopped on the twelve once more.

Liz stared at the clock in disbelief, unsure what she'd just witnessed. Curious, she got out of bed and opened her door, emerging into the hallway. All the lights were off downstairs, which she remembered they had not been around 11:30 when she last returned to her room. Puzzled, she crept downstairs, careful not to make a sound and wake up Kid or Patty. In the living room, Liz was surprised to see the tree exactly the way it had been each Christmas morning, with the absence of Patty beneath it of course. All the gifts were wrapped and piled under the tree, just like they'd left them Christmas Eve, which now seemed like so long ago.

She rushed next into the kitchen. All the food from that day was back where it had been left, and all the dishes were washed and put away, including the few that had been broken during the food fight. The dining room was in a similar state. It was completely spotless, like usual. As a last attempt to find something that hadn't changed, she ran to the foyer and threw open the front door, staring out at the front lawn.

There was a light snow falling, building up over a thin layer which barely covered the grass, some stubborn blades of which were still poking through. The mess of footprints, skid marks, dirt, and blood which they had left in the snow last night was now decidedly gone, as if it had never been there to begin with.

Liz closed the front door, a bitingly numb feeling spreading rapidly through her body. She turned her back on the door, her train of thought spinning its wheels uselessly and going absolutely nowhere. It was as though the previous day hadn't even happened. The previous three days, actually. What was happening? And why to her? Why did no one else notice? All these questions swimming through her brain were overwhelming. No sooner had she taken three steps into the room than she fell backward and passed out on the cold floor.

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><p>Well now we know something's wrong, haha :D Like I said, I'll try not to wait too long before updating again. A few reviews might boost my urge to update, though... *winkwink*<p>

See ya soon!

-oMM


	4. Day 4, 5, 6: Repetition

I'm back! I actually meant to update this yesterday, but I completely forgot with everything else I was doing. But it's here now! And this one's really short, so I'll try and get the next one up maybe tomorrow or Wednesday.

Enjoy!

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><p>"Liz. Liz! Wake up!"<p>

As soon as her mind began to remember what had happened the previous night, Liz's eyes shot open and she sat bolt upright. Her head collided with something hard on the way, and as an audible _crack_ sounded just above her, hers wasn't the only shout of pain that resulted.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Liz gasped when she caught sight of Kid, who was stumbling backward, his eyes wide and his hand covering his face. When he lifted his hand and looked down at it, she could see blood covering his mouth, his nose oddly-shaped.

"Don't worry," he answered thickly, wiping the blood away with the back of his hand. "I heal fast. More importantly, why were you sleeping out here? Did something happen?"

Liz looked around and realized she was still sitting on the cold floor of the foyer, dressed in her pajamas. She also noticed the dull aching in her back, which she assumed was caused by her night spent on the hardwood floor.

"No, no, nothing happened," she answered finally, realizing he was still staring at her, waiting for an answer. "Everything's fine. I just… came down for a midnight snack and… I guess I just, must have fallen asleep." It wasn't a very good excuse, but she couldn't exactly tell him the truth. She'd seen the previous day, after all, that he wouldn't believe her.

"A midnight snack?" Kid repeated, eyebrows raised, as he wiped more blood from his face. "Why are you in here then, if all the food is in the kitchen?"

"Erm…" Liz mumbled, unsure how to answer. "Where's Patty?" she asked hastily, hoping her attempt to change the subject hadn't been too obvious.

Kid frowned momentarily, then replied, "She's still upstairs. But she should be down any minute, shouting about Christmas…" He shook his head, his broken nose looking better already.

"It's Christmas, it's Christmas!" Patty's voice floated down from upstairs, as if on cue, serving as yet another reminder that it was indeed Christmas again, for the fourth day in a row now (not that Liz had really been hoping otherwise, after what she'd seen the last night). Patty stopped halfway down the stairs when she saw them, looking mildly surprised. After a moment an almost mischievous grin spread across her face. "What are you guys up to?" she asked them. Liz turned to look at Kid, realizing for the first time how close he was to her. He seemed to be aware of the same thing, as both of weapon and meister turned away quickly and climbed to their feet, stepping a few feet apart.

"So, Patty, have you… seen the tree yet?" Liz asked her sister, in yet another lame attempt to change the subject. This one worked better than the first had, however, as Patty was instantly distracted at the thought, running off toward the living room with a squeal of excitement. Kid shook his head again, before following her through the door. Liz shot one last look at his back before following.

As they opened their gifts, Liz was less than surprised to see all the same ones yet again. This time, though, she didn't say them out loud, realizing instead that no one would believe her if she told them the truth about why she knew anyway. Her apathy must have shown, because Kid and Patty kept giving her somewhat sad, questioning glances. And when Kid gave them his final gifts, he seemed somewhat hurt at the way she thanked him in an obviously less-than-heartfelt way. The worst part was that she didn't even feel bad about her attitude, not really. After all, she reasoned, she would probably be doing it all again the next day, so why bother anymore?

And sure enough, she was right. That same Christmas came again, and again. Each time it began with Patty shouting "It's Christmas!" from the hall, waking Liz from a restless sleep, and each time it ended in the horrific fight against the great mechanical dragon, with varying degrees of boredom and bad situations in between. The others were starting to notice that she was much more sullen than usual, too. Kid was now confronting her a few times a day. Patty would always watch her carefully, with a look on her face that showed she knew something was wrong. But she never said anything, and only tried to be happy enough for the both of them. Soul and Maka seemed to realize something was different, but they didn't ask about it. Tsubaki would politely inquire if anything was wrong, and Black Star would thump Liz on the back and tell her to cheer up. All and all, the ordeal was getting quite tiring.

Her theory that time was reversing around her but she herself was unaffected was proven when, on the night of the fifth Christmas, she received a shallow cut on the arm while fighting the kishin egg and the scar was still present the morning of the sixth Christmas. She thought briefly about showing it to the others in hopes that it might help her convince them of what was happening, but her better judgment kicked in and informed her that they would probably just say she'd fallen out of bed or something stupid like that.

On the night of the sixth Christmas, Liz fell into her bed wearily, without bothering to wash the mess from the food fight off her body. They had just come off yet another crushing defeat, an occurrence she still was loathe to get accustomed to, and she was feeling worse than ever. She couldn't help but think, as she rolled over so as not to see the clock, that if it meant another day of living this same awful Christmas, she'd almost rather not wake up at all.

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><p>Quite short, yes... But like I said, I'll try and get the next one up very soon. Then I'll probably put the last one up on Christmas Eve :D woo-hoo! So soon! haha<p>

See ya soon, readers! And thanks again for all the awesome reviews!

-oMM


	5. Day 7: Disaster

Second to last one! Woo-hoo! Here's where things get serious, hahaha.

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><p>"It's Christmas, it's Christmas!"<p>

Liz put her pillow over her head in a futile attempt to block out the sound, before clambering out of bed with a groan of displeasure. She stalked to the door and opened it to see Patty coming down the hall.

"Would you give it a rest already?" Liz snapped at her sister, who froze at the top of the steps. "You're fourteen years old. Why don't you just grow up?" Patty hesitated, looking almost on the verge of tears, which softened Liz, if only a little. She sighed. "Hey… I'm sorry," she said quietly. She could tell it didn't sound that sincere, but somehow she didn't really care. "I just… didn't sleep well."

Patty studied her older sister for a moment, before smiling brightly and saying, "Don't worry. Merry Christmas!" She then proceeded to skip down the stairs, humming some Christmas carol.

After throwing on some clothes, Liz trudged lazily down the stairs and entered the living room, dropping on the couch in a tired huff. She watched Patty shift through and shake the boxes and bags, though Liz already knew by now what was in each one of them. After a moment, Kid emerged from the kitchen. He said good morning to Liz, to which she grunted a reply, before taking a seat next to her and setting down the plate of plain toast he'd been carrying. Patty took a piece and turned to the others.

"So… Who should go first?" she began. "Well, it's Kid's house, so…"

"Why don't you just start?" Liz interrupted icily, having heard this stupid conversation far too many times already. "Since it's obvious you want to."

Patty looked like she didn't know what to say, but Kid rounded on Liz. "Are you okay? You seem worse than usual today."

Liz was about to snap at him but Patty hurriedly cut her off. "It's okay, sis is just tired. Don't be too hard on her, 'kay?" Kid looked unsure, but nodded finally, before giving Patty the go-ahead to start the gift-opening.

A while later, the time came once again to set out for Maka's apartment. Liz wanted to stay home, but knew if she did she'd be bored out of her mind just waiting for time to pass, so she reluctantly agreed to go. Once again, when they opened the door, they were halted by Kid's arms as he marveled at the sight.

"Look at that snow! I've never seen something so beautiful in my life! The way it—"

"Oh, get out of the way," Liz interrupted angrily, not in the mood to be forced to fly across the lawn for the seventh day in a row. She shoved her meister aside and proceeded to trudge out across the snow, not taking even the slightest care to make her footprints anywhere near perfect.

"What are you doing?" Kid demanded, hands on his head. "You've ruined the perfectly even surface! Liz! Hey! Are you listening?"

She could hear him, but she wasn't listening. She heard Patty pull Kid forward across the lawn, and before long they caught up with her, and once again Patty took the lead, leaving Liz and Kid to walk along silently behind her.

"Okay," Kid began when he was sure Patty was out of earshot. "What's going on? Usually, you're not too happy on Christmas, but it's never been this bad before."

"Well, I've never had to live the same Christmas seven days in a row before," she muttered under her breath.

"What was that?" Kid asked, not hearing her.

Liz shook her head. "Nothing. I'm just sick of this holiday."

"Why?" he persisted, much to her annoyance. "It's a nice time. Just look at Patty. She embraces it, all the joy and happiness everywhere." Liz looked at her sister, who was once again offering Christmas wishes to everyone she passed.

"But that's just it," she went on, not thinking about what she was saying. "All that stuff, it's all lies."

Kid frowned at her. "What do you mean 'lies'?"

"Christmas doesn't really bring happiness," Liz said bitterly. "This whole season is just a huge hassle. There's too much going on, no one has time for each other. For their families…" She wasn't sure why she was suddenly saying all this. Maybe it was just the fact that she was so fed up with her life lately she just didn't care anymore.

"It's fine if you wanna believe that," Kid said seriously. "But that doesn't mean you have to take your cynicism out on everyone else." Liz just clucked her tongue in response. "What?" he demanded, sounding exasperated. "What happened to make you hate Christmas so much?"

She turned to look at him, eyeing him carefully. "You really wanna know?" He gave her an unreadable look, and she took it to mean 'yes'. "Fine. I'll tell you." She even surprised herself in saying this, but why not, really? It's not like he would remember it the next day anyway.

"It happened eleven years ago," she began, trying to keep her voice level and make sure Patty was still out of earshot. "I was six and Patty was three. It was Christmas morning, back when we still lived with our parents. They were these rich, upstanding members of society, you know? Big on appearances. They always bought us really fancy gifts and clothes and stuff. My dad, he was the owner of this big company. I don't remember exactly what the company did… It was so long ago, and I didn't understand it at the time. But anyway, his business hadn't been doing too well lately. They had this big deal going down just after Christmas that would decide our whole future, so he was pretty stressed out. He kept coming home late and stuff, and was really quick to get angry.

"So on Christmas day, we were all at home. We'd just finished dinner, and Patty and I were playing with all our new stuff. And as luck would have it, that was the day Patty's weapon powers started to appear." She stopped for a second. It was strange discussing her family, since she hadn't done so with anyone in years, not even Patty. Kid stayed silent, waiting until she was ready to continue. She checked once more that Patty wasn't listening, before resuming her story. "I'd already gotten mine, right? But I didn't tell my parents. I knew they wouldn't understand, what with the whole 'appearance' thing, so I'd been just steadily teaching myself to control it on my own. But Patty, you know her wavelength is stronger than mine. She had trouble controlling it at first. And that Christmas morning was the first of those times. We were just playing innocently, when all of a sudden Patty's arm changed to the pistol barrel and fired a few wild shots around the room. Since she was so young, they weren't that powerful, maybe like a BB gun. But one of them hit my mother in the arm, hard enough to leave a really bad bruise. She screamed, and my father freaked out. He advanced on Patty, yelling at her, while she just cowered there. So what else could I do? I protected her. I showed them I had the same ability, and they weren't happy.

"My father went overboard. He kicked us out of the house that very Christmas night. We had to start living on our own, learning to fend for ourselves. It was rough after that, too rough. So many times I really thought we were just gonna die out there, alone, with no one to care. I convinced myself that if my father hadn't been so stressed out because of the season, it wouldn't have been as bad. We might have been able to talk it out. But because of this stupid holiday, I'll never know. I lost my family because of the hassle that Christmas brings. You try being a big Christmas buff after something like that."

There was a long pause after Liz finished her tale, during which they both walked on in silence. Liz felt kind of silly for spilling her entire past so suddenly, but it had also raised some of the dormant anger left in her from the incident.

"I'm sorry," Kid finally offered, breaking the silence. "I didn't know."

"That's right," she snapped bitterly, knowing she shouldn't be yelling but still she couldn't stop herself. "You didn't know. Maybe next time you'll think before trying to scold me for things you don't understand." She saw him flinch at her accusation, but he didn't say anything to the contrary. To avoid the time when they would eventually have to speak again, Liz hurried forward to catch up with her sister, leaving her meister alone a few paces behind them.

Later that day, Liz didn't even bother to help prepare dinner. Instead, she sat in the living room and watched TV, listening to the sounds of her two companions in the kitchen. Dinner turned out as it had the other day she didn't help, made mostly of sweets and cakes. Not that it mattered much to her, she wasn't really hungry in the least.

"This is all my fault!" Kid complained halfway through dinner, slamming down his silverware. "If it wasn't for my inability to make anything perfect, we'd have a real dinner right now!"

"Yeah, you're right," Liz agreed bitterly. "This is all your fault. Maybe you should just get lost and leave us all alone." Kid stared at her, looking extremely hurt by this accusation. There was a murmur of surprise around the table, and Patty set down her fork and glared at her sister.

"You shouldn't say stuff like that!" she scolded. "You know how he gets." She then turned to their meister as Liz sat back in her chair with a huff of annoyance. "Don't listen to her, she's just grumpy. I think this is a great dinner!" Once again she ended up somehow flinging food down the table, which began the increasingly familiar and annoying food fight. This time, however, Liz joined in, chucking bits of food with such vigor that soon it seemed as though it was everyone against her, and they were losing. Before long she picked up a knife and charged, after which all five of them ran from the room. Liz grabbed Kid by the shirt collar and dragged him off after them, still brandishing the knife.

No sooner had she chased them all outside than the great tremor shook the ground below them, followed by the tearing hole in the earth and the appearance of the mechanical dragon.

"Kids, eh?" the man atop the monster said. "Looks like a Christmas feast for me! I'll be taking all your souls tonight!"

"A kishin egg?" Maka realized. "Here?"

"Tsubaki!" Black Star called, and they jumped into action, followed shortly by Maka and Soul. Kid fought to his feet and held out his hands for them. Patty transformed immediately, but Liz stood behind for a moment.

"Come on!" Kid shouted impatiently. She grumbled unhappily, but obliged.

The fight seemed to be going worse than any of the other days, if that were possible. They could barely land any hits, let alone have a visible effect on the machine. Maka got smacked aside, a sizeable gash on her leg rendering her unable to fight and barely able to stand. Black Star ended up receiving the same slice on his arm that Liz had seen a few times before. Their weapons were slightly better off, but not by much. Kid was rapidly becoming covered in bruises as Liz downright refused to fight. Patty did her best to pick up the slack, but Liz could tell her sister was growing tired of the effort. After a particularly nasty fall, Liz jumped from her meister's hand and reverted to human form, glaring at the monster. She started to storm straight up to it, not paying any attention to anything else.

"Liz!" Kid yelled angrily, a hint of worry in his voice. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"What I should've done six days ago!" she screamed back, not looking at them. "I'm sick of Christmas! I'm sick of everything! I just want it to stop!" Finally, she'd had enough. She wanted this to end, whichever way possible. And if this was the only chance, so be it.

The man on the dragon's back grinned down at her, and began to fiddle with his controls. The monster took a few steps forward, and swung its tail back to strike. Liz held her ground.

"No!" she heard Patty yell from far behind her.

"You idiot!" Kid's voice, on the other hand, sounded much closer. Just as the spiked tail struck, Liz felt something slam into her from behind, shoving her down into the snow, one of the spikes cutting off a few strands of her hair.

She heard Black Star yell fiercely, and saw a blue streak out of the corner of her eye. The kishin egg man let out a cry of surprise, and soon enough, the dragon retreated once more.

Liz stood up angrily. She saw Black Star standing in front of her, watching the place from which the dragon had just disappeared, taking with it her chance at freedom.

"What's the big idea, Kid?" she demanded, rounding on him slowly, anger boiling. "Why did you—?" Her words caught in her throat at the sight before her. Her meister was lying on his back in the snow, and he was covered in blood. A hideous gash stretched across his chest, all the way from his neck to his waist and at least four inches wide, and a dark, striking red was slowly soaking into the snow around him. It was a wound any normal human would have died from instantly. And even though Kid was no normal human, it didn't mean he was invincible.

"Kid…" Patty was saying from her spot on the ground next to him. She choked on a sob and grabbed his arm, shaking it with her quivering hands. "Kid…! Oh, no…"

He looked up at her, pain clear in his eyes. "Where's… Liz…?" His voice was barely audible, cracked by ragged breathing. He tried to sit up and look around, but grunted harshly in defeat, falling back down with a weak grimace. "Is she… okay…?"

Liz shook her head in disbelief as all the others hurried over (Soul supporting Maka, who was still having trouble standing). Her mind rapidly replayed all the horrible things she'd said to her meister that day. She'd treated him like dirt, and still he'd put his own life at risk to save her, when she'd been trying to die in the first place? It just didn't make sense. It couldn't be happening. Not now. Not like this.

"We've got to call a doctor!" Black Star was shouting. "Come on, we don't have much time—!" He grabbed Soul's shoulder, shaking it violently. "Soul! Hey! What's up with you guys?" he demanded as Soul and Maka just stared blankly ahead, watching Kid and Patty with wide eyes. "Why are you just standing there? We have to hurry, damn it! We have to—!"

"Black Star," Tsubaki said softly, putting a hand on his arm. He turned to face her frantically. There were tears in her eyes, even Liz could see from where she stood away from them all. Tsubaki shook her head ever so slightly, and Black Star stared at her, his heavy breathing beginning to slow.

"No way…" he admitted finally, sinking heavily to his knees and tightening a hand over the slice on his arm. "This can't be happening…" He stared at the dark red snow in front of him, shaking his head. Maka seemed unable to watch anymore, and turned and buried her face in Soul's shoulder. He put an arm around her, continuing to stare blankly at the scene before him as Tsubaki cried silently beside Black Star. Tears were streaming down Patty's face as she continued to hold tightly to Kid's arm, his blood-covered chest rising and falling so slowly Liz had to strain her eyes to see it.

"No…" Liz whispered, her voice coming out in a hoarse croak. "This wasn't supposed to happen… This wasn't what I wanted!" Unable to take it anymore, she turned and broke into a run, sprinting toward the city. Someone called her name as she fled, but no one followed.

As she ran, a heavy snow began to fall, the wind picking up with each step she took. There was no one out on the streets, no one to disturb her or get in her way. So she continued to run, not sure where she was going, just wanting to get away. Away from the sight of her meister dying in the snow, away from her friends' shocked faces, away from the guilt that was penetrating her like the icy cold of each snowflake that soaked into her sweater. Before long, she found herself at the fortune teller's shop. She vaguely remembered that they hadn't visited that day, and again she felt that inexplicable draw to enter. Before she could stop herself, she flung open the door and threw herself inside, taking warm refuge from the blizzard now raging outside.

Avea was sitting at her table, looking at Liz with her wide, chestnut eyes. She smiled and held out her hand. With only a moment's hesitation, Liz stepped forward and lowered herself into the chair, feeling herself thaw out with each movement. As her face regained some of its former warmth, she realized there were frozen tears escaping down from her eyes. She hadn't even noticed before.

_Had enough?_ Avea asked as soon as Liz took her hand and closed her eyes.

There was a moment's pause, before Liz answered, _You're the one who's doing this? You're the one who's making me live this terrible Christmas Day over and over again?_

_The only one who has brought this about is you, dear,_ the old woman answered wisely. _I am only trying to help you see where you've gone wrong._

_I don't get it,_ Liz complained, feeling such a rush of different emotions at once that she felt as though she might explode. _Who are you?_

Avea sighed. _I have lost much in this world, girl. The life I have chosen has brought me heartache and sadness. After so many years of grief, my only remaining goal is to use my time magic to try and keep others from going down the same path._

_So you're a witch…_ Liz concluded. _But… _Why me? __Why did I deserve this? So I don't like Christmas, big deal. How does that mean I'm ruining my life?__

_It seems you still haven't learned a thing, have you? The events that happened today, and each day, happened because of you and no one else. I am trying to show you that you should cherish the ones you care for now, because for all you know this could be the last Christmas you spend with them._

Liz frowned, a thought striking her. _But it'll just be the same day again tomorrow, won't it? Kid will be fine and I'll be able to do whatever I want…_

_Fine, if that's the way you wish to look at it._ There was anger in the old witch's voice now, and it scared Liz somehow. _If you refuse even to try learning from this, then I will end the spell here and now. Tomorrow will come, and you will be forced to live with what you've done—knowing that you've lost one of your closest friends because you were selfish, and would rather turn a blind eye than admit that you were wrong._

_No! Please! _Liz interjected, startled by this proposition. _I didn't mean for this to happen. I just wanted to end this! I didn't think he would—_

_That is precisely the problem,_ Avea cut her off, her tone still icy. _You thought only of yourself and your own dilemmas, like you often do—especially this time of year. I know what happened to you in the past,_ there was a tiny gentleness in her voice at this admission, _but that was years ago. You have a different family now—one I had hoped you would wish to protect._

_I do! _Liz insisted frantically, growing more and more worried. _I love my sister. I… I love Kid! I would never do anything to hurt them…!_

_My dear,_ the old woman's voice was much softer now, but still it stung at Liz's heart. _You already have._

Liz froze, the reality of this statement biting at her like bitter cold knives. The fortune teller was right. Kid was hurt and it was all her fault. She'd been selfish—she'd thought only of trying to end this torment of Christmases, regardless of the consequences her actions could have on anyone else. But not anymore. She wouldn't let things end like this.

_Give me another chance, _she pleaded finally. _One more chance, I promise I'll make things right. I… I don't want it to end this way. I don't want to lose him! Please… Just give me one more shot. I can fix this. I know I can._

There was another long pause, during which Liz waited with baited breath, her heart pounding against her rib cage.

_Go home,_ Avea answered at last. _Go to sleep. If you truly do deserve another chance, then when you wake you will have it. But if you don't, then tomorrow will come, and you will have to live with what you've done._

Avea let go of Liz's hand, and when Liz opened her eyes, the old woman was gone. She sat there for a moment more, letting the conversation sink in. She didn't know what time it was, but felt she had very little time before midnight, and something was telling her she needed to be asleep before the clock struck twelve. So she stood at last, and headed out the door.

When she reached their house, she noticed everyone was still huddled in the lawn. It was as though no one had moved the entire time she'd been gone. She didn't approach them, rather crept by in an attempt to not be seen. As she passed by, though, she couldn't help a glance in their direction. The first thing she saw was her sister, who was leaning her head on her meister's arm, shoulders shaking as she cried freely. When Liz caught a glimpse of his face, she gasped and stumbled in the snow. He was turned toward her, as if looking straight at her, but she knew he couldn't see her. The life had completely gone from his once-brilliant golden eyes, which now reflected a dull, lusterless bronze instead. It was a terrifying sight—because of what she knew it meant. She quickly averted her gaze and hurried inside, rushing quietly upstairs and lying down in her bed, not even bothering to change out of her wet clothes.

She chanced a glance at the clock, and noticed it was almost 11:45. She wasn't sure if she'd be able to fall asleep, with the vision of those lifeless eyes still haunting her mind. But some part of her knew that for his sake, and if she ever wanted him back, she had to. She could feel her consciousness already slipping away, and with her last thought, she prayed for the first time ever that the next day would be Christmas again.

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><p>DUN DUN DUNNNNNNN! (Haha, my most-written genre in past works is angst hands-down, so I don't think I could function if I didn't at least throw a little bit into this one. I also do love happy endings, though, so...)<p>

Haha, so anyway, now we know the reason why Liz hates Christmas :D And oh dear, whatever is gonna happen tomorrow? Well I'm not putting the last chapter up until Christmas Eve, so you'll just have to wait until then! haha

See everybody in a few days!

-oMM


	6. Day 8: Perfection

Well, here it is everybody. The last chapter! I hope you're all feeling the Christmas spirit as much as I am, and if you're not not, then you will be by the end of this :D I really love this chapter, haha.

My Christmas gift to all of you! Enjoy!

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><p>Liz woke on her own the next day, the memories of the previous night still frighteningly fresh in her mind. She was afraid to look at the clock and see what time it was. If it was after 8:10, then that would mean it wasn't Christmas anymore, since Patty hadn't run through the halls shouting 'It's Christmas, it's Christmas!' So instead she got out of bed and crept out into the hall. A few of the lights were on downstairs, mixing with the bright morning sunlight streaming in through the windows. Liz stopped in front of her sister's bedroom door and was about to knock when it flew open from the inside.<p>

"Oh, sis!" Patty greeted her, surprised. "Morning!"

"Morning," Liz choked out, her voice still hoarse with sleep. "Um… What day is it?" She was afraid of the answer, but she needed to know if she'd been given another chance, or if things had really ended the way she'd caused them to.

Patty fixed her with a puzzled look, before grinning broadly. "It's Christmas, of course!" She laughed excitedly, clapping her hands, while Liz's breath caught in her throat.

"It's… Christmas…" she whispered. It was Christmas again. It wasn't over. Yesterday hadn't happened. She had another chance. She giggled in disbelief as Patty rushed downstairs. It took a moment for these facts to sink in, during which Liz continued to stand in a daze in front of her sister's bedroom, grinning stupidly. "It's Christmas!" she shouted, for the first time being truly happy to hear these words.

She rushed downstairs without changing out of her pajamas. Patty was once again sitting under the tree, surrounded by colorful gifts and laughing happily. Liz looked around the room, her eyes falling on the kitchen door. Excitedly, she ran across the room and pushed the door open. Kid was standing at the counter, just like he'd been all those other Christmases. Unable to express how happy she was to see him alive again, Liz rushed forward without thinking and threw her arms around him, making him jump violently and spill the coffee he'd been stirring all over the counter.

"What—Liz!" he grunted angrily. "Look at this mess!"

She loosened her grip and spun him around to face her, her hands on his shoulders. When his golden eyes met hers, she couldn't help but think of the last time she'd seen them, and how she'd never before appreciated how full of life they were. "You're back," she said quietly without thinking.

"Back?" Kid repeated, clearly confused. "I haven't gone any—" He cut off abruptly as she grabbed him and pulled him into another tight hug. "Liz…? Are you… feeling alright?"

Only slightly embarrassed, she finally released him, chancing a glance at the utterly lost look on his face. "Yeah, sorry," she admitted. "Just… Merry Christmas."

He raised his eyebrows, a look of mild surprised spreading across his face. "Yeah… You… too…"

Liz grinned. "Come on!" She grabbed his hand and dragged him back out into the living room, causing Patty to look up from her pile of gifts.

As they opened all their presents, Liz seeing each of them for the eighth time now, she acted as genuinely surprised as she could. Even when Kid gave them their last gifts, she kept it up. She examined the snow globe more closely than she had before, and noticed for the first time some of the smaller details. Like the way each snowflake was exactly the same. _That's my Kid…_ she couldn't help but think with a smile. There were also, to her surprise, tiny versions of her and each of the members of their team placed throughout the city, as if someone had taken a three-dimensional photograph of Death City and placed it inside this very snow globe. It was really beautiful.

Liz looked up at Kid, setting down the gift. She then promptly stood and stepped up to him, wrapping him in another tight embrace. "Thanks, Kid," she told him. "I love it."

"What's with you today?" he asked as she let go of his shoulders and backed up. "Usually, for some reason, you hate Christmas."

_Of course he wouldn't remember, _Liz thought to herself. _Yesterday never happened. I never told him about that day._ Maybe someday she'd tell him again, but for now it didn't matter. Like he'd said, it was in the past.

"I guess I just realized…" Liz began finally, "I've got such a great family, there's no reason not to be happy." She smiled fondly at the two of them. It was cheesy, but it was the truth.

"Yeah!" Patty yelled in agreement. Kid raised his eyebrows, but couldn't keep from grinning all the same.

"Why don't you guys go put all this away upstairs," he suggested after a moment, "while I clean up this mess?" The sisters gathered their things and headed for the stairs, while Kid set to straightening the room. After Liz stowed her gifts in the usual corner, she suddenly remembered the conversation she'd overheard between Kid and his father all those Christmases ago. With a sudden idea, she quickly dressed and dashed back downstairs.

"…I'm trusting you to take care of it," Lord Death's voice was just audible through the door as Liz approached it. "As a Grim Reaper. Before it kills again."

"…I will."

Liz took the opportunity just then to open the door wide, purposely whacking the bell hanging from the mistletoe on the door frame and drawing as much attention as she could. She marched right into the center of the room and stood next to her meister, who was looking at her with an incredulous expression. "Don't worry, Lord Death," she said confidently, facing the mirror in which he was reflected. "Kid's got us, right?" She put her arm around his shoulders for emphasis. "If we run into this kishin egg, we'll roast him like Christmas dinner." She grinned in an attempt to drive this point home.

Lord Death was silent for a moment, and when he spoke again his funny voice had lost its serious tone from before. "Well, then I guess I have nothing to worry about! I don't know what I'd do without you three!" He waved a cheerful peace sign before disappearing, the mirror going dark.

Kid glanced suspiciously at Liz. "How did you—?"

"We're going to visit Soul and Maka, right?" she interrupted, backing toward the door. She still wasn't too keen on letting him know too much about her eavesdropping. "We should get ready." With an innocent laugh, she left the room, closing the door behind her.

Not long after, Liz found herself once again standing on the front step, her path blocked by Kid's outstretched arm as he gushed about the beauty of the snowy lawn. As hard as she was trying to be the picture of happiness today, she still didn't relish the idea of flying through the cold air. But rather than complain bitterly, she thought of another, more fun way to distract Kid, and maybe loosen him up a little.

"…hiding any impurities in the grass," he was saying, though Liz wasn't listening anymore. "There's no way we're going to walk on it and create a mess of—YEEAAARRRGGH!" He barely finished his sentence before landing face-first in the snow, thanks to the light shove given from the older sister behind him, while the younger collapsed into a fit of laughter. Of course, Patty wasted no time in following suit and jumping off the step, landing on the grass and kicking snow everywhere while Liz watched with a grin, stepping down into the snowy lawn.

"_What,_" Kid began icily, pulling himself to his feet, "were you thinking? Now the lawn's a complete disaster AND my jacket's soaked!" He tried to brush the snow off his clothes and hair, Patty now making snow angels behind him.

"You know, Kid," Liz began, discreetly leaning over and pretending to tie her shoe while gathering a rather large pile of snow. "Sometimes you just need to cool it." With that, she stood and flung the snowball at her meister, hitting him straight in the face. Patty burst into another fit of excited laughter, which this time Liz couldn't help but join in on as she brushed the snow from her hands.

"Fine," Kid said after a moment in what sounded like a tone of forced calm. Liz stopped laughing abruptly, thinking maybe she'd gone too far. "If that's the way you want to play it…" The older sister stood still, ready to apologize, but when he brushed the snow off his face, it revealed beneath it an evil grin, a look she'd seen him give his opponents on numerous occasions. Then, as fast as lightning, he swept up a handful of snow and threw it at her. She shrieked in surprise and turned sideways so as to hide her face. The snowball collided with her shoulder, a chunk of it sliding inside her jacket and dampening her shirt with cold. Kid smirked at her as Patty laughed even harder. Quickly catching her sister's eye, Liz got a sudden idea.

"Kid!" she scolded, unzipping her jacket. "What's up with your aim? You got my chest all wet!" Trying hard not to laugh, she started lifting her shirt, as if to dry herself off. And just as she'd hoped, Kid flinched violently and looked determinedly in the other direction.

"S-Sorry," he stuttered, shaking his head. "I didn't—"

"NOW, PATTY!" Liz cut him off, re-zipping her jacket as her sister rose to her feet. Catching on, Kid spun around to face the imminent threat, but not fast enough. Patty advanced on him in a flash, a wicked grin on her face. She stretched out her hands and, with one last mischievous glance at her older sister, shoved him with all her might. He fell backward and collided with an unsuspecting Liz, sending them both tumbling over each other and rolling down the hill, snow catching on their clothes and covering them in an instant.

As the incline leveled out, Liz came to a slightly painful halt just before the edge of the sidewalk. She shook her head, lifted herself up with her hands, and opened her eyes—only to find herself lying directly on top of her meister, the tip of her nose less than an inch from his.

The blank expression on his face she was sure mirrored her own perfectly. For a second, she couldn't remember how she'd gotten there. She couldn't remember anything—what day it was, where they were, even her name. All she could see were his eyes, those bright golden eyes, so close to hers. Again the feeling of what she'd done to him just hours ago flashed across her mind and for a brief instant she felt her breath catch in her throat. She was vaguely aware of someone laughing hysterically in the background, of some cold, dampness pressing down on her. But for just one brief second, for some strange reason, none of it was there.

Then the moment was over, and everything came slowly back to her like she was coming out of a tunnel. The sound of Patty's laughter pierced the air, the icy cold of Liz's wet jacket bit at her back and arms. Patty had shoved Kid, he'd crashed backward into Liz, and they'd both fallen the whole way down the hill almost to the street. She remembered now.

Then for some inexplicable reason she started to laugh. And she wasn't the only one—Kid cracked a grin and chuckled with her. It was just small giggles and first, but before long Liz was gasping for breath between shouts of laughter. She stood carefully and helped her meister to his feet, wiping frozen tears from the corners of her eyes. He leaned forward, hands on his knees, as his laughter died down as well. Patty hopped over to them, grinning one of the broadest grins Liz had ever seen.

"I thought we were on the same team there," Liz muttered to her sister so Kid wouldn't hear. "What gives?"

Patty shrugged. "Just thought I'd help you out," she answered with an innocent smile.

"What—Help?" Liz repeated, suspicious as to what her younger sister was getting at. But Patty simply blinked her eyes and smiled again, clearly not saying anything else. Instead Liz turned to survey the now completely messy, snowy front lawn before them. After a second, she noticed the others doing the same. "So, Kid," she began again after a moment. "How do you feel about _that_?" She stretched out her arms, indicating the mess of snow and tracks in front of their eyes.

He was silent for a second, his expression unreadable. Finally, he said, "You know… I guess it's perfectly beautiful in its own way." He glanced sideways at Liz, flashing a smile. Slightly stunned, she gave a small smile back.

"Well, let's go!" Patty proposed, clapping her gloved hands together and leading the way down the street.

This time, as they walked, Liz wished a Merry Christmas to as many people as she could. Patty was still in front, skipping along and waving and smiling at passersby. Kid was walking along beside Liz, watching her with a slightly bemused expression.

"Okay, what's going on?" he confronted her finally. "There's definitely something different about you today. Why so extra cheerful?"

Liz shrugged innocently. "Oh, I dunno," she answered dismissively. "Maybe the season's just gotten to me." He opened his mouth to say something else, but she cut him off. "Come on!" She grabbed his hand and rushed him forward, breaking into a run down the sidewalk. They dashed past Patty, who gave a surprised yelp before happily racing after them.

Maka and Soul had been almost as surprised as Patty and Kid by Liz's uncharacteristic cheerfulness, though they didn't seem as keen to question it and instead chose to be grateful for her new attitude. When they got back to the mansion, Liz decided to help out with the cooking again today. After all, it had been a few Christmases since she'd done so. Maybe they wouldn't be stuck with a dinner made entirely of candies and sweets that day.

As Kid set about measuring the turkey, Liz set her celery sticks in a neat line, ready to slice them, and Patty began peeling her potatoes. As she prepared, Liz couldn't help but look back on the past few dinners they'd had (well, _she_'d had, since none of the others remembered the past seven Christmases) and found herself wondering what might happen at dinner if they had a real, traditional holiday feast, instead of just a ragtag collection of appetizers and side dishes. It was bound to go better, wasn't it? Maybe they could even avoid the usual food fight. She could dream, couldn't she?

With this in mind, Liz set down her utensils and walked over to where Kid was fiddling with the turkey by the oven, where she wordlessly took the rulers from his hands and placed them in a drawer to her left. She then proceeded to pick up the turkey and place it in the oven herself.

"Liz, I wasn't finished with that," Kid protested matter-of-factly, attempting to get around her to take the bird back out of the oven and resume his calculations.

"Ah, ah, ah," Liz said, wagging a finger. "We're not going to worry about symmetry for once."

Kid looked horrified. "How could you even suggest such a thing?"

"Because it'll be good for you," she persisted. "Come on, I'll show you." She led him over to the counter where she'd just begun chopping the celery.

"Liz, these aren't cut straight at all. Just let me—"

"No," she answered firmly. She then took a kitchen towel from a nearby drawer and proceeded to tie it around Kid's eyes, blindfolding him.

"What are you doing?" he demanded, sounding slightly apprehensive. Liz didn't answer as Patty abandoned her potatoes to come watch this out-of-the-ordinary event that was happening in their kitchen.

"Just go with me here, 'kay?" Liz said, trying to keep her voice level as she stepped behind him and placed the knife in his hand. She took a deep breath, then leaned sideways so she could see around his head and began moving his hands like a puppet, making him slice the celery. And she was sure to make every piece a different size.

He couldn't see what was happening, but it was obvious he could tell it wasn't right. "What are you doing?" he asked again, trying to wrestle his hands from her grip to lift the blindfold.

"I'm just trying to help you loosen up a bit," she answered, though admittedly she herself was a little stiff at the moment, given the odd contact. But this was for his sake, after all. Patty giggled quietly from beside Liz, who glared at her and told her to go back to her potatoes, feeling slightly embarrassed.

After another minute (during which Liz heard continued sniggering coming from somewhere in the potato vicinity), Liz carefully let go of Kid's right hand, allowing it to continue cutting the celery just as she had been. She took off the blindfold, but was surprised to see his eyes squeezed shut beneath it. With a small chuckle, she said, "Look. You're doing it." Very slowly, as if it cost him a great effort, he opened first one eye, then the other, looking down at the chopped celery in front of them.

"This isn't right, I can't—" he began, before Liz sighed and put her left hand over his mouth and her right back over his, guiding it once again.

After another minute or two, she felt the little resistance left in his movements disappear, his muscles relaxing. She carefully removed her hands and took a step back.

"I… I'm doing it…" Kid said incredulously, as if he himself couldn't believe what he was seeing. "I'm cutting them… and they're not perfect… and it's okay!"

Inwardly jumping for joy, Liz beamed as he turned to face her, a wide grin on his face. "Congratulations," she said as he took a step forward and they hugged tightly. "I knew you could do it."

"Ahem," Patty cleared her throat loudly from across the room after a minute of silence. Liz snapped back to the present and let go of Kid, who was still grinning. "I'm finished with the potatoes!" Patty announced, spreading her arms wide. Liz looked at her sister and shook her head. Kid, on the other hand, first glanced at the potatoes, then at Patty, then at Liz, then back at Patty, and back at the potatoes, before rushing over with a disgruntled growl.

"This is all wrong! Can't you see how some of these skins are twice as thick as others? This will have to be completely redone. We can't use these!"

Liz smiled and heaved a heavy sigh. _Well, it's a start._

A few hours later, the doorbell once again sounded the arrival of Black Star and Tsubaki.

"So what's for dinner?" Black Star asked. "I'm starving!"

"Black Star, you ate two hours ago," his weapon partner protested. Liz had heard this conversation many times now, but with how well the day had gone so far, she found she didn't feel the urge to punch Black Star in the face anymore.

"Ha! Come on, Tsubaki. You know a man needs six meals a day to survive, especially a man as big as me."

"Well, come on in, make yourselves at home," Liz said cheerfully, leading the way into the den. "You can wait in here until we're finished getting ready."

"Whatever it is, it smells great," Black Star noted, sniffing the air like a hungry wolf as Liz smiled and headed back to the kitchen.

It wasn't long until Soul and Maka arrived, and the time for dinner had come at last. When they entered the dining room, what awaited them was the picture of a traditional Christmas feast. The long table was laden with turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, baked potatoes, dinner rolls, and various pies and tarts.

"Wow!" Maka marveled, her eyes lighting up as they all sat down. "This looks great, guys!"

"So how'd you get the turkey cooked?" Soul asked with a light smirk, jerking a thumb toward Kid, who looked mildly affronted at the accusation.

"We've been teaching Kid to loosen up about symmetry a little and just kind of go with the flow," Liz answered politely.

"Actually," Patty corrected, "Sis tied Kid to a chair and we handled most of the cooking." Everyone laughed at this admittance, even Kid, who shook his head and gave a kind of sideways smile.

Dinner was, for the first time this Christmas, relatively uneventful. But not in a negative way. It was just a group of friends eating dinner together, no food fights or anything outrageous like that. And Liz found that she wouldn't want it any other way.

After dinner, they were all sitting in the den by the tree when they felt the familiar tremor. Knowing it meant trouble, each one of them jumped to their feet and ran outside, already in battle mode, just in time to see the mechanical dragon burst out of the ground, eccentric kishin egg on top.

"Tsubaki!" Black Star shouted, falling into stance.

"Right!" she answered reflexively, changing forms and rushing to battle with him.

Maka grinned. "It wouldn't be cool to let them have all the fun, now, would it?" she asked rhetorically.

"My thoughts exactly," Soul answered with a smirk, taking her hand and shifting to his weapon form as they too joined the fight.

"Well, guys?" Kid said, turning to the sisters. "Ready?"

"Yeah!" Patty exclaimed happily, jumping up and down.

"Let's do it," Liz answered with conviction, as both girls changed forms and leapt into the air, where Kid caught them expertly and rushed in behind the others.

Right from the get-go, Liz could tell the battle was going much better than all the previous ones combined. Having just come from a night of friendly conversation rather than a heated food fight, everyone's spirits were much lighter than they'd been the past seven times she fought this battle. Their resonance rates were exponentially higher, and their attacks were therefore doing a lot more damage. Liz found she was unable to predict the monster's movements this time around, since her allies were fighting so differently, but surprisingly she didn't really need to. Before long, Maka was able to take out the dragon's legs with a well-placed Demon Hunter, which left Kid with a perfect shot to fire his Death Cannon directly at the kishin egg. Both man and machine disappeared, leaving only a single, floating, red soul where the terrifying beast had been seconds before.

"So who gets it?" Black Star asked as all the weapons returned to human form. Everyone was silent for a second, before Patty finally spoke up.

"I think it should go to Sis, since she'd been the queen of Christmas cheer today!" Just about everyone agreed with this statement immediately.

"But then she'd have one more soul than Patty…" Kid started, trailing off when everyone glared at him.

"It's okay," Liz insisted. "Loosen up, remember?" After a short while, and with what looked like a great effort, he agreed. As Liz took the soul and feasted on it, Kid flinched momentarily, but gave a pained smile, to which everyone laughed heartily.

"Guess ya really are making progress," Black Star noticed, smacking Kid on the back.

"We're happy for you," Tsubaki said with a kind smile.

"Yay!" Patty cheered, leading the way back inside. When everyone had turned for the door, Liz took Kid's hand and gave it a light squeeze, offering him an encouraging smile. She started to head inside, but stopped when she felt a tug at her arm, turning to see Kid standing rooted to the spot. She fixed him with an inquisitive look.

He looked at her for a second, before saying, "Thanks."

She smiled, feeling her face flush a bit. Without a word, she tugged harder at his hand, leading him back inside into the warm house.

"You guys took your time," Soul noted as they reached the doorway of the den, where everyone had once again gathered. Kid let go of Liz's hand and took a step forward into the room, but was quickly stopped by Black Star holding up a hand.

"Ah, ah, ah," he scolded, before pointing a finger and jerking it upward. Liz looked above her head and her heart gave a jolt. Hanging from the door frame directly above her and Kid was that same decorated sprig of mistletoe she'd deliberately hit earlier that day.

"Mistletoe!" Maka said with a grin. "You know the rules, guys!" Liz's eyes momentarily met her sister's, as Patty gave her a quick thumbs up.

"That's—" Kid began evasively, but he stopped when Liz grabbed his shoulder and lightly pulled him back against the door frame. Before he could say anything else, or before her rational mind could take back over, she leaned forward and kissed him.

Kid went rigid at first, but before long she could feel him loosen up and return the motion. It didn't last long, seeing as Liz could still feel the eyes of everyone in the room on her, but it was by no means meaningless. When she stepped back, she was able to hear Patty cheering and Black Star laughing, which brought a rush of embarrassment and made her momentarily skeptical. But when she looked at Kid, he gave her a soft, almost accepting smile, and she felt instantly better. She thought once more about the previous Christmas, how she'd almost lost him, and how grateful she was that she'd been given this last chance. And she wouldn't have traded the way it turned out for anything in the world.

It wasn't long before everyone left for their homes, all yawning and wishing each other Merry Christmas. Patty went straight to bed after that, leaving Liz and Kid alone in the den. They sat in comfortable silence for a while, just admiring the lights on the brilliant Christmas tree in the corner.

"You know," Kid began finally. "You never did tell me what had you in such a good mood today."

"Like I said," Liz insisted, trying to sound convincing. "It was probably just the season."

"Yeah, right," he disagreed with a wry smile. "I know you, and it takes more than that to completely change your opinion of what used to be your least favorite day of the year."

She was quiet for a second, thinking of what happened and what it really was that had caused this drastic change in her character. "I guess, in a way… you helped me."

He frowned. "I did?"

She smiled and shifted her weight, leaning her head on his shoulder. "You helped me see how much I love you guys, and how much I was taking for granted."

"Right…" he said in an unsure tone, clearly not understanding.

Suddenly a thought hit her, and she sat up so fast Kid jumped and looked around in surprise. "What time is it?" she demanded seriously.

He glanced at a clock on the wall behind them. "It's almost twelve-thirty. Why? What's wrong?"

12:30. It was almost 12:30. Christmas was finally over.

She couldn't help but grin at the thought. Of course she hadn't exactly enjoyed reliving the same Christmas over and over again at the time, but when she looked back on it, she couldn't help but be glad it had happened. Seven days ago, on that first Christmas, she'd been a miserable old Scrooge who wanted nothing more than to sleep through the holiday and not bother experiencing it at all. Now, here she was, sitting in the den with one of her best friends, enjoying the beautiful decorations and the comfortable silence. This experience had brought her so many things. It brought her happiness, it brought her peace, it brought her a reason to love the holidays, and most importantly, it brought her closer to him. It was ironic, she couldn't help but notice, that this day was in fact her eighth Christmas in a row, and the only word to describe it was 'perfect.' A perfect eight. She chuckled at the thought, before remembering that Kid was still watching her, waiting to know the purpose behind her outburst.

"It's nothing," she answered finally, unable to hide her small smile.

"Well, whatever the reason for your sudden good spirits," he said as she settled back down, lying against him again, "this turned out to be a pretty good Christmas."

"Yeah," she agreed. "I don't think I've ever had a better one." Sleepily, she thought of Avea and what the old witch had told her, how she had a family worth protecting. She would have to find the woman and thank her for making her see that.

Kid closed his eyes and leaned back against the sofa. "Almost makes you wish it was Christmas every day, huh?" he asked rhetorically.

Liz smiled to herself. "Almost."

**-0-0-0-**

**THE END**

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><p>Yay! Happy endings! It's been a good run, but now we're finally at the end. I just wanted to say a final thank you to all my readers and reviewers :D It always makes me really happy to know my writing is actually being read and appreciated. I couldn't do it without you! :D Thanks again!<p>

Have a very Merry Christmas, everybody! See ya next time!

-oMM


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